Broken Memories
by allokai
Summary: Kojau is faded, confused mightyena who finds herself lost in the world with only hazy, disjointed recollections of her life before. But as strange, menacing things begin to happen around her, she finds that no one can run from the past forever...
1. Faded

Chapter One-Faded

Kojau was running as quickly as her paws would take her. Heavy thuds in the thick undergrowth behind her signified that her tormentor was still in hot pursuit. The terrified mightyena yelped in her fear and bounded ahead, feeling the branches of trees slap at her face. Her whole body felt battered, and she couldn't seem to think straight. The forest was unlike any she had ever seen. It was so dense, with the trees closing together and the greenery so untamed, that Kojau feared she would fall and become tangled hopelessly in them. Her head hurt. She didn't know why that was. She didn't know anything. She had no idea why the arcanine and his trainer were chasing her. He certainly wasn't bent on capturing her, for he had ordered his pokemon to kill.

She remembered up to a point…but then it stopped. It stopped before she had evolved, with only hazy fragments of her life afterwards. And even these weren't very clear. She had a vague recollection of something happening to her when she was a poochyena…but she could never quite grasp what it was.

There was nothing, she supposed. If she didn't remember anything, why bother to even live at all? Why live a life of confusion? Why even hope? She had heard that dark types weren't supposed to hope. They were supposed to be the most vicious and unpredictable pokemon of them all, probably largely because not much was known about them. That was their reputation, at least. They weren't hated, just…thought of as dangerous.

She didn't think of herself as vicious. Sure, she preyed upon things, she fought…or at least, she thought she remembered fighting, somewhere. She just couldn't seem to remember, though…not past a certain point, anyway. Or maybe there wasn't anything there to remember? Maybe her life hadn't actually happened? It was certainly an odd thought, that she somehow didn't live past her poochyena years. But how could that be?

Kojau yelped in fear as a torrent of blazing fire shot through the bushes toward her, singing the greenery only a little ways behind her. Its intense heat reflected off her face as the smell of burning greenery came faintly to her nose.

The wolf like pokemon pushed herself to run faster, to stretch her body to its limits. She didn't want to die, even if she wasn't quite sure what she was living for. She felt so lost and confused…

The sole reason the arcanine had not caught her yet was probably because he was larger than herself, and was having a harder time with the forest maze. She didn't have much energy…but, oddly enough, it didn't seem to be running out on her, either.

Her paws hurt. She had been running for ages, it seemed. Running from a scene she barely remembered, and, for all she knew, might not have involved her at all or even happened. There had been blood on her muzzle and claws, and she remembered carrying something. She was at a loss as to what it had been she was carrying, however. It seemed to have been attached to her somehow. Had it been ripped away?

Something to do with her head. Yes, that was it…perhaps that was why her head hurt like this in the first place. A deep pain, to be sure, as if…as if…

"Arr!" A snarl behind jerked Kojau out of her wonderings as another stream of flame, more accurate than the last one, burned the bushes close by her.

The wolf like pokemon knew it wasn't a good idea to look back. But perhaps it was okay. She was going to die anyway, right? So it was okay to look back. And she did.

She nearly yelped at the sight behind her. There was an arcanine there, yes, she could see him through the undergrowth he had burned in an attempt to get to her. There was something awfully wrong about him, though. He reeked of an unknown odor, somewhat like burning plastic, and his eyes had an odd, spaced look to them. It took her a few moments to realize that he had no pupils.

Had he been a normal arcanine, Kojau may have given up. But the horrible, unnatural aura radiating off him repelled her. There was something wrong about him. She didn't want to be any nearer him than she had to be, for she did not understand him. He was not right. If he killed her, did that mean she would be the same?

So it was that she turned and ran once more, paws somehow pushing her onward through the twisted greenery and trees ahead of her. They were thinning out somewhat, though Kojau couldn't decide if this was a good thing or not. The evening light illuminated everything in an eerie, gloomy way. Kojau didn't really like it, but then, weren't dark types supposed to be in their element at this time?

Sounds ahead of her echoed in her ears. Faint sounds, to be sure, but she welcomed them all the same, for where there was commotion there was a chance to loose her pursuer. And the smell. Smell of human. Smell of cooling asphalt. Smell of gas and metal and rubber.

Kojau pushed herself faster through the thinning forest. The trees were definitely thinning out now; the greenery wasn't so dense.

She knew this wasn't good for her. The thing behind her and its trainer would be able to get her easily now. And she was tired. But it was an odd tiredness, perpetual and never getting any stronger or weaker. In a way, she wished she wasn't so afraid. Then, perhaps, she could surrender, and this whole confused muddle that was her life would end.

But dark types were resilient creatures. Weren't they? She had heard somewhere that they were supposed to be hardy. She herself didn't feel too hardy at the time. She felt fragile, as if the wind might blow her away.

She could feel herself nearing the road. A hill loomed before her, completely cleared of trees. The grass shone pale in the oncoming night, and tiny bugs shot up around Kojau's tired paws as she made her greatest effort yet.

Another stream of fire blasted out at her, lighting up the whole hill like some surreal battlefield.

Kojau leaped to the side, flinging herself up and forward as the intense heat of the fire blast radiated off the burning grass of the hill. A few stray licks of flame caught her across the muzzle, and she yelped in pain as her eyes watered uncontrollably.

She didn't stop as she came to the top of the hill, though perhaps she should have. The freeway here was busy, as freeways tend to be. It seemed odd to Kojau that there was a freeway in the middle of a forest, but this particular one was meant for taking a quick detour to the next city. Both cities were very busy and large, so there was a constant flow of traffic between them. The city this freeway came from was just a few miles to the west, and the wild pokemon around it had been thinned out dramatically to reduce dangerous accidents. Only pidgey and other birds remained. Kojau didn't know this. She didn't even know how she knew what a freeway was. She just knew.

The cars roared by on double lanes of traffic as Kojau leaped forward. She didn't hesitate at all. The arcanine was closing on her from behind, and death on the road was preferable to death at the fangs of the not-creature behind her.

Everything seemed to be a jumble from there. Breaks squealed as the lone mightyena shot out onto the road. Light nearly blinded her as she ran. The arcanine's trainer shouted but didn't recall the beast as it followed Kojau single-mindedly out onto the freeway.

Kojau, however, didn't have time to worry about the arcanine anymore. She dodged the oncoming cars in the first lane of traffic, horns blaring and breaks squealing in her ears. Miraculously, she wasn't hit, but a thudding sound behind her and a strangled gasp let her know her pursuer hadn't been so lucky.

The mightyena jerked to a stop on the little grassy stretch between the two lanes as a great sound of metal crushing metal assailed her ears. Her eyes widened in horror as she risked a glance behind herself.

The freeway behind her was in mayhem. Several of the cars had collided at high speeds with eachother, and a few were even turned over on their backs like great, helpless beetles. The other cars rushing by were trying to avoid hitting them, but this only resulted in more collisions with one another.

And the arcanine was still there. He had risen to his paws, and one of his legs was bent at an odd angle. Bloody froth boiled up from the corners of his muzzle, but he made no sound of pain as he staggered forward once more, dead eyes glinting eerily in the shine of headlights.

Kojau practically threw herself out into the second lane of traffic. What did she have to lose? Falling to the fangs of the creature, in her mind, seemed a fate worse than death. She would do anything to escape it.

A horn blasted right in front of her, and she leaped upward in reflex, claws coming down and sinking into the metal of a van's hood. The man's face behind the window was as horrified as her own, and she felt a stirring of pity for him. Perhaps this was odd. She had heard dark types weren't known for showing remorse.

She leaped off of the van, a gray shadow as her paws took her across the second lane. Cars swerved all around her, and something hard banged into her shoulder and sent her sailing to the other side of the freeway.

She hit the turf and rolled, fangs biting painfully into her tongue. Her shoulder and side ached, but still she lay there, prone on the earth, eyes closed tightly. She could smell her own fear.

There was a great commotion going on on the freeway lane she had just exited. The sound of breaks and metal colliding with something soft and giving came to Kojau's ears, and she blinked her eyes open, stiffly getting to her paws.

The arcanine was a furry lump in the middle of the road. The side of his head had cracked open, and his front legs were slightly flattened. There was something about his head that Kojau couldn't place, and even in death he trembled and seemed to be trying to inch his way toward her. Then, in a blast of red light, he was gone, leaving only a smear of red on the scuffed asphalt.

Kojau stood there, blinking and trembling. The mayhem on the freeway had calmed down a bit, but the humans seemed to be all talking excitedly among themselves, rushing about to try to stop the oncoming cars in advance. The whole scene had a surreal feel to it.

_I caused that…? _Kojau felt herself backing away as one of the humans saw her and pointed. She felt oddly detached, as she wasn't quite there. _I didn't want to…_

And then she was running, away from that horrible scene, away from the confusion and horror that had engulfed her mind…

* * *

Nighttime. Kojau's shoulder ached as though…well, as though it had been slammed into by a car. She limped along up a deserted road she had run into after freeway incident. Her feet hurt from the constant running she had been doing. 

How long had she been running, exactly? She really didn't have any way of finding out. She only knew she ran been on the run a long time. But what had she been running from? And why? Those questions plagued her mind. All she could remember was that she had been running and then the trainer had seen her and sent out that _thing._

She must have been going a long time, though, from her condition. A rather fragile looking wolf to begin with, she now looked as though a breeze could blow her away. Her legs were like sticks, her ribs showing like hoops through her skin. Her eyes were large in her sunken face and unusually bright. Now that everything about her had shrunken, those eyes seemed a bit to large to fit her body. Her fur was matted and dirty, and various sticks and the like clung to her fur.

Come to think of it, she supposed she shouldn't really even be alive. If she had gone without food for as long as she thought she had, then by all rights she should be dead. But she wasn't.

She didn't feel too bad about this, either. Hunger didn't gnaw at her belly, and thirst hadn't bothered her for quite some time. Perhaps it had before her memories of her past clouded up. She wondered what had happened to cause that.

The trees on either side of her swayed in the slight wind, and Kojau shuddered. She didn't much care for nighttime, she decided, and she wondered if she even was a dark type. Mightyena were dark types, she knew that, and she was a mightyena, right? She was sure she was.

Dark types were supposed to feel at home in the night. She knew that from somewhere. She was supposed to be in her element. But she was afraid. She was afraid of the shadows stretching out from the forest that twisted around her frail body and threatened to entangle her and drag her off into the forest. She was afraid of the things that might be lurking in the forest, and of what they might do to her if they found her here, alone and unprotected. For she knew, in some vague sense, that she was not normal. And she was afraid of fear itself, which would drive her to madness and suicidal thoughts if she didn't focus on putting one paw in front of the other.

The night seemed to be reaching out for her. It wanted to claim her. Even the wind was trying to force her into the darker shadows of the forest on either side of the lonely, empty road she now trod upon.

The moonlight glinting off of the rocks intrigued her, and she focused upon it. She had seen that sort of silver glint before, right? She had seen it…somewhere. Or had she felt it? Yes, perhaps she had felt it. But how could you feel something you had seen? Perhaps it was like the way you could taste something in the air.

Kojau focused on the glint and continued on. She knew she should have collapsed by now, and had no idea why she hadn't yet. It defied the laws of pokemon in general. Apart from magnemites and the like, pokemon couldn't keep on like this without nourishment or food. And yet here she was, padding on grimly toward whatever the future had in store for her.

She didn't have any energy. She felt tired, yes, a deathly tiredness, but she could push this to the back of her mind almost unnaturally easy.

She thought she might have been chased by that arcanine she had seen earlier once before. She was quite sure she had been chased by something or other for a very long time. Perhaps several somethings…? At any rate, the freeway incident had been nothing new.

Fear itself was nothing new. She had feared many times before. She feared even now. She feared the unknown the most, because everything was the unknown. She decided her fear of the night tonight almost amounted to a phobia. But, still, it was a dull fear, something she didn't need to focus on. She didn't need to focus on anything, actually. She didn't even really focus on her memory loss, though she did wonder what her past had been like.

Thinking of the arcanine, Kojau decided she didn't really want to remember.

The only thing she could really feel was the ever present dull ache in her head. It had been there ever since she could remember now, and it never fluctuated in its constant pain. It was just…there. A part of her. But it was not natural.

Nothing was really natural, not to Kojau. The night around her seemed evil and deadly. The stars and moon above were unknown. Even the road seemed odd in that it had nothing traveling along it.

Perhaps it was her who was making everything unnatural around her, though, and not the other way around. Maybe it would be better if she was just gone.

As it was, though, she was here, but not in the sense that everything else was. While everything else lived and toiled and lusted and was joyful, she was simply _here_.

And she was faded…so faded…

* * *

Once upon a time, across the sea, there were two kingdoms that lived peacefully with one another. They were divided by the river Homar since ancient times, and its waters, flowing clear and true, signified continued peace between them. 

So it was that things stayed that way, and brother and sister land coexisted peacefully with each other up until the present day.

But deception was brewing, and something dark had arrived upon the land. Even the people felt it, and kept their children indoors. The pokemon were acting oddly, and the amount of wild dark types seemed to suddenly be thinning out dramatically.

And, as certain unexplainable things started to happen, the kingdoms turned upon one another and engaged in fierce combat. The river Homar, for the first time, ran red with blood. Brother fought against brother and friend turned against friend… Soon, it was impossible to tell what exactly had really happened, and truth mingled with deceit…

A tall building stood in the middle of a huge city nearest to the sea, in the kingdom of Akhorra. It had a grand old look to it, and gargoyles crowned its top, looking even more sinister than ever in the evening. The building was obviously important.

At the very top of this building was a small room. Voices could be heard emanating from it, sounding low and conspiratory in the darkness.

"It failed, hmmm? Well, if at first you don't succeed, try try again…" The first voice was low and melodious, though it had a subtle feel of danger to it.

"And what of the…what of number 89?" The second voice was obviously nervous, and sounded frightened and small.

The first voice paused a moment before answering, and when it did, it was full of unconcealed malice. "Continue working on it…its purpose will soon be revealed…"

* * *

(So, what do you all think? This is my first attempt at a more detailed, involved story, so reviews are very much appreciated. I'd also like to thank Act, who was my beta for this. ) 


	2. Deka

Chapter Two-Deka

(Bringing in a new character in this chapter. Don't worry, Kojau will come in in the next chapter and the few after that, most likely. She is, after all, my main character.Since the two featured in this chapter are going to play a part in the story, I thought it wise to bring them in now. They will probably show up sporadically throughout the story's chapters until Kojau meets them or something of the sort. Oh, and thank you for the reviews! It's really encouraging.)

Deka wasn't there when the houndoom was brought in. On the contrary, she was in the gardens, walking the neat cobblestone paths.

She loved the gardens. Even though the smell of oil and smoke and who knows what else hung in the air around them, Deka could have cared less. The high walls hid whatever was behind them from view, and the vine trellises climbing them made them seem pleasant, less of a barrier than something to feast the eyes upon. Plus, Deka would never have considered the thought of escape. She liked being led around by the scarf about her neck, and she liked the human who led her.

Marci. The human woman was tall, and her long hair was a shade of reddish brown, which attracted Deka. She always spoke softly, and her large, dark eyes gave her a gentle appearance. She knew where Deka liked to be petted and fondled.

Deka liked humans in general, but she particularly liked Marci, and she liked even better the walks around the garden Marci took her on. The garden walks were probably the only time the ninetales got to go out into the outside world. She didn't care, though. The building was fine as well.

She was headed toward the building currently, and she peered up at it as the soft scarf around her neck urged her on. It was a large building, very tall, with many levels. It was also very wide, and inside it seemed as if it went on forever and ever. Of course, Deka had never explored it. She had never been allowed to. She did not find this strange, as she had grown accustomed to the idea that humans were fond of keeping secrets. She wondered if she was a secret, as well. It wasn't a bad idea.

Hallways. They were inside the building now, having come in from the gardens by a small side door. Deka knew these hallways like the back of her paw. Marci always led her up the same uniform white hallways, lit brightly by a small chain of lights imbedded in the ceiling.

There were rooms along those halls as well, many rooms. Deka occasionally heard cries of pain and anger emit from these rooms, but she paid them no heed. Marci always praised the ninetales for this, and to Deka there was no higher reward then being praised by Marci. Besides, humans always did things for a reason. If pokemon really were being hurt behind those ordinary doors, they must have deserved it.

Her own room was behind a door very similar to the ones of the rooms in the hall. Now that she thought about it, Deka realized it was exactly the same. But it was still special, in her opinion, as was her room.

She loved her room. It was very long, and covered in a soft grey rug that felt good to her paws. Its walls were a creamy color, and a few pictures of greenery hung on them. She also had her toys there, and her food and water givers. To Deka, there was no better pastime than peering out the window at the end of the room overlooking the gardens, and seeing the other pokemon be led around…except perhaps being there herself.

She was going to the room now, she knew, as she and Marci had already passed the door that led to the labs. The labs were where Deka had gained the ability to speak human, though Marci told her repeatedly never to. She had no idea why this was. Marci couldn't understand pokemon, she was sure of that, but the only time she was allowed to speak human was when she was safely in her room. And Marci never stuck around to chat then.

They were at her room now. Marci was fondling her ears with the hand that held the end of the scarf, while the other was reaching up to unlock the doors that led to that room. The key clicked in the lock as Deka leaned into Marci's hand, and the door swung open. And there, caged in a corner of her room, was the houndoom.

* * *

"I don't think you're even here." Deka sprawled out on the grey carpet of her room as she peered at the houndoom through eyes slitted with content. He ignored her, eyes stony and seeming to stare straight past her. As usual.

He had been here for two days, and he had ignored her for all of them. He hadn't even moved. All he did was sit there and stare off into the distance, not even a flicker of an expression crossing his face.

Deka had tried everything to gain his attention. She had talked for hours on end to him, first in pokemon and then in human. She had thought she had seen a flicker of an expression cross his face when she started to speak in human, but it was hard to tell. She had tried to dig under his cage to tip it over, but that hadn't worked. She had danced in front of him, fluffing up her luxurious nine tails, and she had even stood on top of his cage and made faces at him from above. Through it all, he hadn't even twitched. The only things that ever moved about him was his slow, measured breathing and the glint of light that traveled gradually across his two curving horns as the sun changed its position in the sky and shone through the window.

Now, as the ninetales rolled about on the floor, sensuously enjoying the feel of the carpet on her back, she wondered if he was even aware of anything. He hadn't moved for the two days he was here, and the humans hadn't come inside to take him outside for his needs or to give him food. He was like one of the gargoyles crowning the building, Deka supposed, in that he never moved and sat like some dark sentinel in his cage.

"Why did they even bring you in…?" Deka got to her paws and began to lick at her cream colored coat, one eye on the houndoom, just in case he moved. Of course, he didn't.

"You're like some statue," she told him conversationally, finishing with her grooming and sauntering over to the pipe that gave her water. All she had to do was lap at it and it opened and gave her a drink. She did this now, retaining some in her mouth and walking over to the cage again. He was a fire type, right? So perhaps water would get him move.

She walked over to the cage and shot the water from her mouth like some odd fountain, right at the houndoom's face. "I'm a squirtle!"

He didn't move, which disappointed her somewhat. She supposed that was to be expected, though. His eyes did seem vaguely disgusted as the water dripped down the front side of the cage before his face. Deka didn't know if that was good or bad, but she was getting fed up with this.

"You're boring." She pressed her nose to the front of the cage, smearing it in the water. "Why won't you talk?" Her voice had a bit of a nasal ring to it, as her nose was plugged up from being squashed against the cage.

He did nothing.

"You're dumb."

Nothing.

"You're weird."

Still nothing.

"You're a…umm…an embarrassment to your kind!" She had heard Marci once say something along those lines to another human who worked with her who had messed up. "You're…umm…you're a coward! You-Yaiii!"

Deka jerked backwards as a torrent of flame blasted out at her face, the heat of it palpable even through the cage. She lost her balance in her hurry to get away and tripped over backward, falling ungracefully to the floor in font of the houndoom, who was on his feet and glaring at her angrily.

"And what are you? A human's disgusting pet?" The words were hissed out quietly between clenched jaws, and his eyes glowed slightly as he glared at her. He was quite tall when he stood, really, and the muscles rippled under his sleek black fur as his long horns glinted dangerously in the light.

Deka found herself wishing she could sink into the floor under his glare, but she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from his…or even move, for that matter. The ninetales whimpered in her fear.

With a sigh of disgust, he turned his head away and broke eye contact. "Pitiable."

Deka shut her eyes tightly and lay perfectly still until her trembling stopped. She didn't want to have to look into his eyes again, and she could feel his gaze on her.

"Oh, do stop cowering." He spoke again after what seemed an eternity, voice a bit more gentle than before.

Deka opened one eye, then the other. He was looking down at her, but his gaze no longer seemed to entrap her, and his eyes no longer glowed. She stared up at him, still laying prostrate on the floor, fearing to move. He was scary.

"What's that on your head?" She started as he spoke once more, after a long period of silence, voice a bit sharper than before.

"What on my head?" She finally ventured cautiously to her paws, sitting in front of him. She studied him as she waited for him to answer, gaze ranging over his lanky, well built frame, lingering in fascination on his pointed tail.

"That thing on your head," he growled, motioning with his long, orangey muzzle. "That human thing." His tail flicked under her gaze as if it possessed a mind of its own.

"Oh, _that…" _Deka's eyes rolled up as if to peer through her skull to view the top of her head. There was a small black collar there, going around the side of her face and in front of her ears. It formed a large band at the top of her head, a band with several buttons on it. She had tugged at it a few times before, but her head hurt every time she did so, and it seemed to be attached somehow, for twin stings assaulted her whenever it was jerked. It had been there for as long as she could remember. "It's…it's just there."

"Yes, but it shouldn't be." The houndoom narrowed his eyes at her, staring at the top of her head. "It's not normal, you know?" When she did nothing, he snapped at her. "Do you!"

"Uhm…yea…I mean, no. I mean…" Deka had gotten to her paws by now and was backing away from him. He wasn't very nice seeming. She supposed she ought to have expected that, though. The surplus of dark types here seemed to dislike her for some reason or other, houndoom in particular. Why had she even wanted to wake him up…?

The houndoom heaved a sigh and lowered his wolfish muzzle to gaze down at his paws. The expression of mild consternation that had been on his face earlier intensified, as though he was thinking about something. He did not speak.

After a time, Deka judged it safe to move. The ninetales got to her paws and padded off toward the window at the end of the room, glancing back at him as she reached it. He had done nothing, hadn't even glanced at her.

Shrugging it off, she took one of her chew toys in her mouth and settled down in front of the window to relax.

* * *

The next day, Deka awoke to find him pacing his cage, demon's tail lashing angrily behind him. Agitation etched his strong features, and his eyes burned with a silent, fervent light.

He whirled about and leered at her as she approached his cage, eyes glowing an eerie red. "What did they do to me?" His voice was like a raging fire, and Deka could almost feel the flames reaching up to scorch her fur…

"What…do you mean?" She tore her vision away from his face with difficulty, though it was better than yesterday. She hadn't even been able to move then.

"Why is it that I do not hunger?" His voice was low now, murderous. "Why is it that I do not long for water after three days? Why is it that I do not feel needs as every other pokemon must? WHY!" He practically roared out the last word, and a torrent of heated flames gushed out against the cage wall, so intense that they obscured the houndoom for a moment.

Deka yelped in surprise and tripped clumsily to the side, trying to get out of the way of the flames…just in case they somehow found their way out of the cage and caught her. The fox like pokemon backed up slowly as the flames died down, revealing the cage's occupant once more. Deka trembled a bit in fear.

The houndoom regarded her coolly, any hint of his previous anger gone. "You really are pathetic…"

Deka slunk off to the other side of the room, turning her back to him and curling up miserably on the floor, wishing he had never come.

* * *

"Why do you not try to escape?" The houndoom's voice came to Deka as Marci shooed her into the room after her daily walk in the gardens. "Why not flame that human? You could do so easily."

It was the fourth day he had been here, in her room, and he hadn't been let out of his cage yet. Deka wondered if he ever got bored in there, but if he did, he never showed it.

"Well, he seems to have gotten used to you." Marci patted Deka on the head as she began to shut the door to the room, looking very expectant about something or other. However, she was out of the room before the ninetales could ask her just what it was she seemed to be looking forward to.

"Flame?" Deka asked as the door shut behind her. She padded up to the houndoom's cage, stretching lazily, mouth opening in a yawn and revealing her pristine canines. "I don't know what you're talking about…" She ended her yawn, shuddering pleasantly.

The houndoom snorted, fading tongues of smoke coiling up from between his jaws and dissipating against the top of the cage. "You heard me. Flame. You know, flamethrower, ember, fire spine…" He trailed off sarcastically, eyeing Deka.

The ninetales, however, truly had no idea of what he was talking about. Flame? Her? She did not flame. She had never flamed before in her life…at least, not when she could remember. She looked at him questioningly.

He shook his head in disbelief after scrutinizing her closely for a few seconds, as if trying to ascertain her truthfulness. "I don't believe it. You can't produce any kind of fire at all? Nothing?"

She shook her head, shifting uneasily from foot to foot and feeling uncomfortable. She didn't want him to go into one of his 'moods.'

But he only looked at her oddly, eyes seeming…pitying? Somehow, the look disturbed her. "You poor, poor thing." He spoke softly for the first time, neither frowning not smiling.

He did not speak for the entirety of that day, and Deka made no move to try to get him to. Somehow, his earlier words had disturbed her greatly, but she could not tell why.

It bothered her as she settled down to sleep near her window, feeling the cool air rushing in from the air vent overhead cool her. He had made it sound like she should be able to flame, as if it was natural. Perhaps others like her were able to flame? She, after all, had never seen another ninetales or vulpix. As far as she knew, she was the only one there.

Did that make her special? Did that mean that, just maybe, the humans treated her better than the other pokemon? Those pokemon that cried pitiably from behind those heavy doors…perhaps they weren't bad, after all? Perhaps whatever was happening to them would happen to her in time? But no, that couldn't be. It just couldn't. The humans were good and kind, and she had always been good. Whenever she went to the labs, something pleasant always happened, like her suddenly knowing how to speak human.

Nevertheless, it troubled her greatly. Eventually, she drifted off into troubled dreams that she knew she wouldn't be able to recall in the morning.

When she awoke, she realized that something seemed to be different. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Deka tried to tell what it was. She let her vision drift to the side of her…and found herself staring at a black, shackled paw inches from her muzzle.

With a yelp, she leaped to her paws…or attempted to. Still unsteady and thick with sleep, she nearly tripped over and managed to sit down right before she fell.

The houndoom only regarded her with a kind of cool amusement, eyes shining a bit in the light from the window.

Not knowing what to say, Deka peered around frantically, staring at his cage. It was still there, but the door was open.

"I didn't escape." She started again at the sound of his voice, peering nervously back at him. What if he chose to go psycho again and flamed her? She didn't want that to happen.

"The door opened," he continued, pawing at his face. "Opened just a few minutes ago. Tried flaming the walls, but nothing happened. Figures. Humans have to make sure everything is secure, and they're actually pretty good at doing it." He paused as he noticed her nervousness, and that amused expression crept onto his face. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Though, you can't really blame me."

Deka could only nod numbly, feeling oddly relieved. Fully awake now, the ninetales blinked at the houndoom, studying him.

"Well, I never told you my name." He spoke conversationally, and much to her surprise, he bowed to her, just missing touching the floor with his nose. "I am Crosius."

Trying to shake out of her shocked state, Deka managed a faint smile. "Deka Minus C. But…everyone calls me Deka." She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a warmth creep into his eyes, seeming to thaw the coldness that had been there before. Perhaps, she thought, just perhaps they could be friends.

* * *

Somewhere near the top of the building, Marci was talking to a small man.

"It worked? He didn't burn her?" The woman looked expectantly at the man, fingers trailing through her long red hair.

"Indeed it did." He looked a bit nervous. "He made no aggressive movements toward her, and it actually appeared that there was some form of communication between them."

Marci smiled, eyes lighting up. "Good. It would be a pity if we lost little Deka that early…" She sighed. "She is one of my more favored occupants."

The man made no reply to this, and Marci chuckled after a moment, a deep, rich sound. Leaning back in her chair, she interlaced her long fingers. "I know I shouldn't get too attached to her, though. Their personalities tend to change with our little experiments. But it is for the good of the people, you know. The sooner we win this war, the better." She paused. "Though it is a pity…such a pity. She would have made a fine, loyal companion pokemon."

The man still didn't speak. He seemed nervous of Marci, but he knew not to leave. Her moods could swing very unpredictably, and it was best to act as if he wasn't here for now.

But Marci only gazed out the window and off into the distance, a slight, whimsical smiled on her face, quite hiding the demon that the man had learned lurked beneath. "Such a pity…" The words were breathed once more from her perfect, cherry red lips, as if to herald things to come…


	3. The City

Chapter Three-The City

The sun was high in the sky, a golden disk rising over the forest. Its pale rays seemed to make the green leaves of the trees glisten metallically, and the bits of granite in the shiny rocks on the road caught this light and glinted.

Kojau liked it. It seemed much better than the night, in her opinion. She liked the way the sun streamed down on her back, as if to heal her battered body. She enjoyed the glint it made on the road she walked upon.

It was a nice day, she thought. The sun wasn't too hot, and cooling breezes blew all around. Birds chirped nearby, and their happiness seemed to break Kojau's sober mood and make her feel nice as well. Perhaps this was the start of something a little better than her past. Maybe things would change.

It was all she could hope for, she knew. Despite the fact that she wasn't supposed to really hope…or perhaps, she hadn't hoped before…despite that, she was very hopeful now. Everything about her seemed that way, and, when she thought about it, she realized that the mere action of living in the first place was a sign of hope and trust in the future. She wondered why more beings didn't understand this and make of life what it was meant to be, instead of spreading misery and hurt. That really wasn't supposed to be in life, when she thought about it.

There was a growing feeling of light in her consciousness, and it made her feel nice and safe. The terrors of last night had gradually chased each other away as the run rose in its glory. Kojau quite liked the sun. That seemed wrong, somehow, but she didn't really care. She had an odd feeling that she hadn't had enough of the sun before, and it seemed quite new and wondrous to her now.

She could sense that there was something coming up before her. Soon, she would be able to see what it was. She had the feeling it was some sort of human settlement, one of those places with buildings and stores and houses, usually all crammed together. Kojau didn't really understand how humans could live packed in like that, but then, she didn't understand humans.

A car was coming up, and the mightyena slipped to the side of the road, continuing on the side. The large metallic monster appeared over the hill and went bumping past her, wheels rolling along.

Kojau found herself staring at it, and caught a glimpse of a person in the passenger's side looking back at her. There seemed to be pity in that human's eyes, and Kojau thought it was probably because of her condition. She looked as if she was about to drop dead, she supposed, with her ribs showing and her fur dull. But there was light in her eyes, she knew that, and she thought she wouldn't be dieing any time soon. Or at least, she hoped…

The car slowed down a bit as the person in the passenger side said something to the person in front. Kojau could feel both humans' gaze on her as she plodded on. She paused, then turned around and smiled at them. They seemed to like this. If it made them happier, Kojau felt happier as well.

The car sped up and disappeared off down the road, and the lone pokemon paused a moment to look after it. She felt like some traveler crossing a desert who had just seen a tumbleweed roll past. She marveled at how the car could come into her life and be gone just as quickly.

She imagined that everything around her was sand, white sand, and that the road was a cleared space leading through it and into infinity. The trees became large pillars of white rock standing around her, and the bushes scraggly tumbleweeds sitting around in one place because there was no wind to speed them on their journey.

She almost wished for another car to come by as she lost herself in this wonderful fantasy. Then, her mind would make up something for it to be, and everything would be somehow complete. She had not had completeness for a long time, she thought, and it would be nice to have it once more, if only for a few precious moments in her consciousness.

But no more cars came rumbling along the already unused road, and gradually Kojau's fantasy came down around her and she was left blinking in disappointment at the forest stretching before her. No matter how hard she tried to grasp the image of the cool, soothing desert once more, she couldn't. Reality was harsh.

She wondered vaguely if she was going insane. The desert had seemed so real…almost as if she had seen it before, somewhere. Perhaps in her dreams. Yes, that would make the most sense. But it had seemed to achingly real, so hauntingly familiar and beautiful. Kojau felt sadness welling up inside her, and a sense of loss made her throat sting. The only thing worse than this was that she had no idea what she had lost.

The mightyena paused in her mechanic trotting. The city was near her, probably just over this hill. If she closed her eyes, she could almost see it. Wait…she could see it. The darkness of her eyelids faded into the image of a large bustling city that stretched on and on, almost like a miniature kingdom. There were many buildings, many different parts of town, and it went on indefinitely, for miles. Trees and parks dotted its interiors, and cars rumbled along busy streets. People walked the sidewalks.

Kojau shook the image from her mind. How could she possibly see this if she hadn't even seen in before? But then, maybe she had. Who knew? Definitely not herself, though that didn't seem right. Nothing really seemed right when she thought about it.

The wolf like creature eventually came to a large hill. It rose toward the sky, and the old road went up it and over. There would probably be a nice view at the top of the large hill, Kojau thought. She liked views. She had a feeling she had always liked views. But then, nothing was definite with her anymore. She could only surmise.

The hill was steep and large, and Kojau had to lean forward when ascending it to avoid falling backwards. Her paws hurt where they connected to the rest of her legs, and she limped slightly as the hill's incline put even more pressure on them than before.

Somehow, what was at the top of the hill didn't really surprise her. Sprawling in the distance before her was the huge city almost exactly as she had imagined it, and a ways beyond it glistened the sea. If Kojau squinted, she could just make out the large cargo ships as tiny black dots. It was certainly a very large city, but it didn't really intimidate Kojau, for she continued single-mindedly on.

She wondered what exactly she would do when she got to the city. When she thought about it, just entering at a busy place didn't seem quite right. She was a pokemon, and there were a lot of humans in that city. And humans captured pokemon.

She wondered why humans captured pokemon. They had all sort of other weapons of war, a bit too many, actually, and they could certainly defend themselves if they chose to. Kojau could understand keeping pokemon as pets, but sucking them into tiny, claustrophobic balls and battling them against one another? That caused pain and hurt, and it seemed to Kojau that only a very sick mind would get a kick out of seeing two creatures try to kill each other.

Perhaps this was just a fact of life, though. Things killing other things for food was a fact of life, and that wasn't exactly nice. Life wasn't nice. But everything had a purpose, and Kojau couldn't see the purpose of battling pokemon. Perhaps it gave the trainers some sort of sick pleasure, some feeling of power.

Thinking about this, the mightyena decided that she really didn't want to risk being captured, because that might mean being forced to hurt other beings. She did not want to be involved in hurting others unnecessarily. Maybe for food, but not anything else.

Going into the city directly meant taking a big risk of being captured. But she wanted to enter the city. Besides, this road didn't look too well traveled, so she supposed it didn't lead to a busy part of the city.

Well, she would see. The city was still rather far away, though the trees were thinning out somewhat. The smell of cars and humans drifted toward her on the air, though no more cars passed her. The road she walked was in a state of disrepair, with grass growing through breaks in the cement, so it would follow that not many cars would be driving on it. Perhaps the car she had seen earlier had been something of a rarity. If it was, that was special. She needed something special to hold onto and think about.

The sun was high in the sky by the time the road started turning to the left, still going toward the city. Kojau continued to follow it, never stopping to rest or hunt. She wondered about this in the back of her mind, but if she felt she didn't need to stop, she supposed that was good.

The road led toward the western side of the city, and Kojau tried to see what it looked like. Though she was still far away, she could make out some old looking buildings and alleyways. It didn't seem as busy as the rest of the city to her, and it looked as if it might not be as good and clean as the busier parts of the city. Kojau wondered if the humans had omegas, and if the omegas lived in districts such as this.

It was nearing evening once more as Kojau finally neared the city. She didn't think it felt too much liked she had been walking that long, but she obviously had.

The mightyena paused for a moment as the first few houses came up beside her. The trees had thinned out all the way now, and the forest was behind her. The road twisted onward into the city. Looking about herself, Kojau could see how the houses here were trashy, and many of them looked abandoned, weeds choking the yards. There were no signs of life here except for a few birds flying about.

Shrugging mentally, Kojau stepped off the road and mounted one of the sidewalks nearby, padding along it and looking about herself. She supposed she ought to find some place to stay for the night, as the shadows frightened her, but this place on the outskirts of the city just seemed too eerily silent. Kojau was reminded of a ghost that hadn't quite faded away yet.

Night fell as she went on, and the houses, though they still looked poor, started to show signs of life. The buildings grew larger, though they still looked a bit trashy. The road had fizzled out a while ago, and a more used looking one had branched off it to take its place.

Kojau stopped, peering at the houses. A child laughed in one, and the sound made her feel glad. Light seeped from behind closed curtains in another across from her, and the faint hum of some TV could be heard.

Kojau decided that she felt better now that there was more life around, though she had to be wary of the humans.

Looking ahead of herself, she noticed how the road branched off once more, forking. One part of it led off to some rather tall buildings, and another let off to the west, probably going somewhere to the outskirts of the city.

Kojau took the road going east without much hesitation, keeping to the sidewalk and looking about herself now and then. She didn't much fancy being in the outskirts of the city again, and this road looked as if it led somewhere with a bit more life.

Maybe she would be able to find some alley to sleep in if she continued along here. There didn't seem to be many humans outside, and the one that she saw only shot her a passing glance as he walked by on the opposite sidewalk, clearly intent upon getting somewhere.

The buildings were growing taller, and Kojau peered up at them in awe. She wondered how humans could build such mighty things and keep them from swaying and crumbling to the ground. It seemed impossible to her, and she decided that humans were definitely creatures of many surprises, not to mention as industrious as a tunneling digglet.

The sidewalk she walked upon gradually became busier. Kojau found herself walking by the occasional human, and her senses went on hyper aware.

The people walking by seemed not to notice her at first, but soon she started to feel their eyes on her. There was fear in their faces, fear and…anger? But what was there to be angry about? She hadn't done anything. She only tried to look as small as possible as she walked on. She didn't think she looked like much of a threat, and was going to keep it that way. The majority of these humans seemed rather hostile.

Kojau wondered with a chill what it would be like in the daytime on this sidewalk. It would probably be much busier, and something unpleasant might happen to her if she walked the sidewalks and streets then.

She noticed that there was also fear here. The humans here had a feeling of desperation about them, and they dressed shabbily. Their hair smelled of grease, their bodies of dirt. They also seemed to fear her as well as whatever also it was they were distrustful towards, and shied away from her.

Kojau didn't like this. She didn't want the humans to fear her. The feeling of being feared seemed familiar and alien at the same time, and it made the thick black fur going down her back prickle and stand up. It also made her feel vaguely sick, as if…as if…

Kojau nearly growled in frustration as her mental barriers slammed up full force, right when she was on the edge of remembering something important. Of course, she held that sound back. It would only make the humans fear her more.

There was someone on the sidewalk across from her. She could feel him watching her intently, and had to fight the urge to look up. She didn't want to show an interest in these humans, as they might take it badly. And humans were very unpredictable when they took things badly.

The someone on the other side of the sidewalk was moving as she did, eyes following her. Eventually, she heard him shout something, and a blast of red light stopped her in her tracks. She blinked, feeling disoriented, and peered over at the other side of the sidewalk, seeing no other alternative.

There was a tall, skinny boy standing over there, confidence written in his stance. He held a pokeball in his hand, and a girafarig stood proudly in front of him, front hooves overlapping the sidewalk and resting on the street. It was glaring at Kojau, who only looked at it mildly, thinking obscurely that the boy had made a very bad choice on his pokemon.

"Stomp!" The shout of the boy came to her ears, and she frowned a bit as the girafarig looked both ways across the street before coming toward her menacingly. The people had stopped, pausing to watch the spectacle, or perhaps not wishing to be caught in the crossfire.

Kojau stood calmly as it came forward. She blinked when it reached the sidewalk she stood upon, only then backing up a few steps. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

The pokemon stopped in its tracks, looking at her oddly. "For what?" It-he, she supposed-looked confused. He had never met another pokemon who had apologized to him before it even attacked.

"For whatever it is that I did to you. It must have been pretty bad if you want to pound me into the sidewalk." She eyed his hooves, flinching a bit. They looked quite hard and painful to be hit by.

"No, you did nothing." The girafarig snorted. "My trainer just wants you. Besides, you look as if you could use some nourishment." It eyed the skinny pokemon.

"But I don't want to be caught." Kojau looked up at him with her deep eyes, expression pleading. "Please, I don't want to fight, I don't want to hurt you…" The thought of hurting another pokemon made her feel queasy inside, like she was about to throw up.

"Stomp, c'mon!" The boy's shout rang across the street as the girafarig stared at the mightyena. She seemed oddly different than he had imagined dark types. Though she was emaciated and starved looking, her eyes were bright and she seemed to shine with an elusive sort of inner radiance. At the same time, though, there was something about her that made him very uneasy.

"I'll tell you what," He finally said, reaching a decision. "You run away, and I'll pretend to chase you and then loose you in the alleys. Just keep following the sidewalk, then take a detour down one of the alleys leading off from it. I don't think I'll be able to fit in the smaller ones, but you might be able to." He suddenly reared up and brought his hooves into the air over Kojau's head, winking down at her.

Not needing any other encouragement, the pokemon shot off, hearing the hooves thump down behind her on the sidewalk. She ignored the gasps of the numerous people she raced through, bounding across the side street and racing along another sidewalk. The girafarig was in hot pursuit behind her, and it was hard not to imagine that he was really out to beat her to the ground.

She felt rather relieved as she finally saw one of the small alleys he was talking about. Skidding to a stop, she shot into it, skinny frame having no trouble entering. She could hear the other pokemon making mock frustrated noises as he snorted about the entrance to the alley, unable to fit.

* * *

Kojau decided that she definitely ought to be more careful from now on. That whole encounter with the trainer could have turned into something very bad for her, very bad indeed.

The mightyena was currently sitting in one of the alleyways, a deserted stretch of earth that led between the backs of what appeared to be a main street of some sort. Though she could hear humans bustling about not far from her, she knew they couldn't see her. For once, she felt safe and secure.

But the shadows were here again, along with the night. Kojau got the disorienting impression that they were swaying the earth upon which she sat, dancing about in front of her, reaching out to grab her. Though they did not move, it was as if they really were, and she was afraid they were going to claim her and wrap her in a darkness from which she could never escape.

_Get a hold of yourself, _she thought. _Show some backbone! _But even as she stared into the darker shadows, shades of the past seemed to be haunting her. She yelped as pain suddenly shot down her backbone, centering in her head, a great blinding flash that…but it wasn't there. It was gone now, leaving only a tingling feeling in her spine. And the shadows, spiteful as ever, seemed to be laughing at her.

Kojau whimpered under her breath, pressing her back up against the back of one of the shops making up the alleyway in an attempt to escape. But the shadows only seemed to come forward, moving toward her…or was she moving toward them? There seemed to be a bright light in her vision as the shadows encompassed her sight…and suddenly she found herself falling forward, landing ungracefully on her chest. She must have been leaning forward too much.

Kojau tried to clear the fuzzy feeling from her head as she sat up once more, uncomfortably aware that her fur seemed to be standing on end, making a prickling feeling all over her body.

_Something was coming. _The mightyena's head jerked up suddenly, as she sensed something. The shadows receded from her mind, fading into what they really were as she pricked her ears, listening. There was a thumping of something running, and the thick smell of fear and desperation.

Without really knowing what she was doing, Kojau got to her feet and scurried over toward the line of buildings nearby that made up the other side of the alley. She paced back and forth until she found a place where she could jump up on top and get a god foothold on one of these buildings, eventually coming to the top and climbing higher in this way until she reached the top.

There was something coming toward her on the ground, in front of the building she had just climbed. A long, lone sidewalk stretched before her, and there was some sort of small park nearby.

Shapes coming along the sidewalk. Five presences, one reeking of fear, the other four of excitement and anticipation. Kojau looked closer as they drew nearer. _Umbreon. _Another dark type. The golden ringed fox sped toward her, then under her, then off in the other direction. Kojau could hear his panting even from where she sat, and his paws drummed lightly on the moonlit sidewalk of the neighborhood. His rings glowed faintly in the night as he raced on, fear fueling his step. Kojau glanced back at his pursuers, and made out a granbull to be the next one. He had probably been following the umbreon's scent, but not that he had the eeveelution in sight he was running full out, relying on sight alone. Three humans ran along behind him, shouting excitedly among themselves. They all seemed to have long rifles tided to their belts, and brandished six pokeballs on their waists.

Kojau stared as the odd procession raced along under her, not even noticing her up on her perch, and tore off to the east, excitement radiating off the hunters. The mightyena didn't really know what to do. The whole thing had caught her a bit off guard, and one of her ears drooped in confusion, as it was wont to do at these times.

However, Kojau didn't have much time to think on this. There was a sudden light pattering on the building she had just climbed, then a warm glow illuminated the night as a flareon came up beside her, body radiating light in the night. She paused for a moment, not noticing Kojau, staring off down the sidewalk after the hunt. Her eyes narrowed vengefully as she sniffed the cool night air, and then she was gone, leaping off the building and tearing off down the street after the two pokemon and three humans, leaving a very confused Kojau in her wake.

The wolf like pokemon could practically feel the urgency in the air as she stared in amazement after the spectacle. It hung around like static. The fear and desperation of the umreon…the excitement of the hunters…the fiery, righteous anger of the flareon…they all seemed to blend to create a powerful feeling in the air. And it was to this feeling the Kojau found herself leaping off the building as the flareon had done, landing on the sidewalk before taking off after the hunt. She didn't know why she did it…she only knew that it felt right. And, as she sped along the moonlit sidewalk after the five, she couldn't help wondering what the future had in store for her here…she had a feeling it wasn't going to turn out pretty…

* * *

(Thanks for reviewing, everyone!) 


	4. Moonlit Battle

Chapter Four-Moonlit Battle

Kojau's breath rasped harshly in her chest as her paws came down lightly on the sidewalk and flew up again as she bounded forward. It felt like something was scratching painfully about inside her chest every time she took a breath. It smarted, but she couldn't let up, not now. If she was ever going to catch up to the flareon and the rest, she was going to have to hurry up.

The weird chase still went on ahead of her. The immaculate lawns flashing by on either side of her…the moonlight sparkling off the green grass and the almost identical white houses…it seemed so surreal, especially when there seemed to be no one about except for herself and the ones ahead of her.

Kojau's paws drummed a tireless rhythm on the cement as she pushed herself to run faster and faster. The night wind caressed the black fur of the mane on her back, and she realized that the shadows didn't seem so bad when she was running. The wolf like pokemon felt oddly strong as she blitzed along, and she reflected that this sort of exhilaration wasn't so uncommon, though she didn't know why.

The flareon was still ahead of her, and the glow coming from the fire fox lit up the night around her. She was like a blast of live fire flying over the sidewalk, and her paws seemed to barely contact the sidewalk beneath her. Kojau could almost smell the angry determination radiating off her.

The mightyena was coming up on the flareon, and she slowed down a bit before she overtook the other pokemon, thinking she had caught up in very short time. She didn't think she had been running too fast, but then, she hadn't really been paying any attention.

The flareon still hadn't noticed her follower. Her eyes were fixed on the scene ahead. The umbreon was probably tiring by now, and she had to reach him before he gave out…

"Hey." Kojau felt uncomfortable not being noticed; nevertheless, she winced a bit as she spoke. She hadn't met a pokemon she could actually be on friendly terms with yet, for the girafarig and the arcanine hardly fit the word, 'friendly.' She wondered if the swift little pokemon in front of her would realize she was not normal and detest her for it. It was a bad thought, and Kojau almost wished she hadn't spoken at all.

The flareon, however, barely paused, though she did seem to start a bit. With what seemed to be no small difficulty, she tore her eyes away from the hunt ahead and fixed them penetratingly on Kojau, who winced and slowed down a bit.

"Who are you?" The flareon snapped out the word in a somewhat harsh voice, turning and trying to run faster before the words were even completely out of her mouth. "Friend or foe?" She seemed to have a bit of an accent, though it was hard to place.

Kojau paused a bit before she spoke, wondering if perhaps she should just get herself out of this. She could always run off in the other direction. Besides, how did she know if she was friend or foe? She could very well be an enemy of the flareon's without even knowing it. Paranoid thoughts chased themselves around in her head, and when she spoke once more it sounded strained. "…friend…"

"You look it." The flareon's reply was barely audible above her rasping breaths, though Kojau felt relieved beyond measure that some of the ice had gone out of her voice. "Bag of bones…ketting humans feed their pokemon…_bloat _their pokemon…"

Kojau wasn't really sure on how to reply to this. It registered in her mind that the fox ahead of her had just said some foreign word, a word that she knew nothing about. Nevertheless, she felt it was safe to come up beside the flareon now, and she finally phrased the question that had been pulling at her mind. "What is…what is happening here?" The wind roared in her ears, and she was rather afraid it might had somehow snatched her words away and sent them twisting back behind her. She didn't think she had ever run so quickly, but then, she couldn't know.

"Ro_ghat!"_ The flareon practically spat the word, as if it was a particularly volatile curse. Her accent seemed to shine through the most when she spoke those odd words, and Kojau thought she seemed foreign indeed. "Humans are what is happening," she continued. "Messing with our lives…label us _dangerous and to be destroyed _if we don't cower like their dumb beasts. Now they're after my brother, Azour."

She certainly seemed fiery, and Kojau was glad her anger wasn't directed toward herself. She peered ahead as she and the flareon bolted on side by side, and saw they were drawing ever nearer to the scene ahead of them.

The humans hadn't yet noticed their pursuers, it seemed, and Kojau wondered how their senses could be so dull and yet they had survived for as long as they had. The scent of excitement and bloodlust radiated off them, for the umbreon seemed unable to run as quickly as he should and was slowing down drastically.

Kojau flinched as there was a cry from up ahead, and a growl. The umbreon had been overtake by the granbull, it seemed, as the humans had stopped and were shouting gleefully in their excitement. They were fiddling with the pokeballs on their belts as the two canine type pokemon fought and snarled and traded blows in front of them.

Kojau found herself stopping, staggering to a halt on the sidewalk. She didn't want to be in the humans' sight, because she just didn't and she really had no idea why. There was a dread in the pit pf her stomach, a sickening, nauseating sort of dread, and it was centered on the humans in front of her. She didn't want anything to do with them, and she remained where she was even as she saw how the umbreon was tiring quickly and one of the humans was brandishing a ball with a maniacal glint in his eye.

However, before the mightyena had time to feel guilt over this, the flareon barreled past her and flared up in a fiery show of anger, seeming to light up the whole night. Her fur ignited and blazed in the darkness, giving an effect not unlike a miniature explosion. Her eyes glowed a deep red with barely contained anger, chilling even Kojau to the bone.

As the humans turned about in shock, flames reared up from the sidewalk and danced about the little flareon, seeming almost as if they were alive and demons rising to do their master's bidding.

Kojau winced and backed up as she realized the sidewalk was turning hot under her paws. Her ears drew back at the sides of her head, and she almost wished she hadn't come. There were too many emotions here…anger, hate, fear, desperation, even a wild sort of lust. And the barely contained violence in the air was making her sick.

Then, the violence erupted. One of the humans broke from his trance like state and shouted angrily, plucking a ball from his belt and throwing it. It hit the cement hard and popped open, revealing a typhlosion. The sleek pokemon's fur seemed to shine in the firelight, and the flames on its back, almost needle-like in their appearance, flared up brightly.

The flareon didn't even wince, though Kojau did and backed up even more as the two pokemon faced off. She thought the beast was one of the fiercest looking pokemon she had ever seen. Its eyes were afire with an odd sort of light, almost as if it had been bred only for fighting and nothing else. The senseless feeling about it disturbed the sensitive mightyena, and she found herself moving backward a few steps more, heart pounding in her chest.

The flareon, however, showed no fear. She leaped aside to avoid the typhlosion's initial lunge toward her, escaping the great fangs and clawed paws by inches. The pokemon turned and shot a blinding flamethrower at her, but she dodged in a graceful spectacle of agility, dancing in the night air and coming down a good way away from the typhlosion, shooting a flamethrower of her own.

The stream of fire collided with the typhlosion's head as it came around to face her once more, stopping it in its tracks from sheer force. It roared angrily, trying to force its way through the line of flame, but the flareon only intensified it. Soon, the fire started to turn bluish, then pure white in color, and Kojau caught the scent of burning fur and flesh.

The typhlosion staggered back with a cry of pain, ducking beneath the flames and shooting toward the flareon from below. Forever nimble, she leaped into the air above it at the last minute (a maneuver that Kojau would have thought impossible) and came down on its shoulders, the flames there roaring up around her. This time, she did wince, but grimly kept on with her task, digging her sharp fangs into the typhlosion's ears as it cried out in pain and tried to dislodge her.

Kojau simply stood there, staring at the whole spectacle. It dawned on her that the humans must have noticed her now, as they were facing in her general direction. But they were so utterly focused on the battle between flareon and typhlosion that they didn't even give her a second glance. That was good, because the poor, frazzled pokemon rather wished she was invisible at the moment.

"Damn wild pokemon…" Kojau jumped a bit as the human who had spoken took another ball from his belt, enlarging it from the size of a walnut. "Always interfering. And we weren't supposed to cause much of a stir, especially in a public place such as this. Ah, well, I suppose three pokemon out couldn't hurt, even though we weren't really supposed to send out two in the first place." He made as if to throw the ball.

"Can't we just gun down the both of 'em and be done with it?" One of the scrawnier humans spoke up, coming up beside the other human.

"Nah, where's the fun in that?" Kojau shuddered as the taller human spoke, finally tossing the ball. There was real bloodlust in his eyes, and it was something she was all too familiar with. She didn't want to see that.

The ball hit the sidewalk near the two opponents, a flash of red igniting the darkness. A catlike pokemon appeared, sailing into the air and landing smoothly on the outskirts of the battle. The persian's fur gleamed in the moonlight, and, without waiting for orders, she began to stalk slowly toward the battle, eyes on the flareon.

Kojau was becoming more agitated by the moment. The persian's eyes showed the same blind purpose as the typhlosion's: Kill. Nothing else lurked in that gaze…no pleasure, no fear…just an insatiable desire for blood.

"Sian!" With a fierce cry, the cat leaped into battle, jumping up near the typhlosion and taking a swipe at the flareon on its (his, Kojau supposed, though she didn't really want to look at him too closely)'s head. Her long, pearly claws snagged the flareon's hind leg, and the fox like pokemon shouted in anger as she was dragged down toward the pavement. The two pokemon closed in on her as she disappeared from view between them, and Kojau stared, horrified, expecting any moment to hear a death cry from the eeveelution…

However, there was no cry of despair. Rather, there was a great explosion of light that erupted between the two pokemon as they closed around the flareon, blinding even Kojau.

"Eat fire!" Kojau blinked in amazement as the flareon went sailing smoothly up into the air, powerful leap taking her off to the side of the two disoriented pokemon. She paused to wink at the mightyena before powering up a fireblast and shooting it off at the Persian before the cat had time to get her bearings. The cat squealed in pain.

Kojau had been gradually backing away the whole time, and was now a considerable distance down the sidewalk and away from the battle. The violence was sickening her, and, though she sensed people who had awoken watching from their windows, no one made a move to help or hinder. Kojau got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she wondered if spectacles like this were common, or if, perhaps, the humans actually _enjoyed _watching them.

The battle on the sidewalk was raging much as before now, random blasts of fire sailing everywhere, though miraculously not burning the lawns near the houses. The flareon still seemed to have a lot of energy, though spots of red on the sidewalk and on her hind leg signified that the persian's claws had scored her deeply. Or perhaps the blood belonged to the great cat herself. She was still fighting, yes, but her attacks lacked vigor, and one of her eyes appeared to have been blinded briefly by the fire blast. Her creamy pelt was bloody and singed. The people watching, however, didn't seem too disturbed at this, as they were whooping and egging their battlers on.

"Errancho! Help Azour!" The flareon shouted out the words as she dodged an enthusiastic slash attack from the typhlosion. Her eyes flickered briefly in Kojau's direction, dispelling any hope that her words hadn't been meant for the mightyena, who really didn't want to get involved.

Kojau blinked as the contact between the flareon and herself was broken. She guiltily forced herself to stop retreating, peering off behind the battlers and humans. The granbull and umbreon there were still fighting, though the latter appeared exhausted and unsteady on his paws. There was blood on his coat from the granbulls' great jaws, and his breaths rattled brokenly in his body. It didn't look like he would last too much longer.

Kojau knew he needed help. It was obvious, even as he dodged the other pokemon's fangs, that he was going to go down very soon. But, looking at the battle that blocked her from him, Kojau decided she just didn't want to get any closer. The mindless pokemon terrified her. She had some deep, nauseating fear that she didn't want to end up like them, for they seemed too utterly familiar. And yet, there was that umbreon, that umbreon who would die if she didn't do something.

The street dividing the neighborhood came to mind, and she turned and stared at it. There didn't seem to be any cars going along it at this moment, for none had come during the whole battle, and the sidewalk on the other side of it looked to be a safe place for Kojau to pass the battlers and get to the umbreon. But the other sidewalk was shadowed…and the shadows seemed to beckon to Kojau, to pull at some part of herself, some forgotten part that she would rather not remember.

Sometimes, you had to make a decision, even if it felt wrong. Kojau didn't know what was really wrong or right at the moment. Her fear keeping her from the other sidewalk didn't seem exactly wrong, but staying here seemed wrong as well. The pokemon swayed on her paws, eyes clenched shut, stewing over her choices. She felt oddly transparent, as if she wasn't there.

However, a roaring noise in her ears and a heat jolted her out of her thoughts. She leaped reflexively off the sidewalk and to the road, just in time to avoid a stray flamethrower. The fear in her heart pushed her on, and she soon found herself standing and trembling sadly on the opposite sidewalk, immersed in the night's shadows.

The darkness claimed her then, seeming to wrap around her body like a fog. Images danced in the shadows, floating just out of her reach as they swept up on either side of her, coming down in a great wave to smother her and enfold her in a darkness that was anything but soothing. There was a brief moment of terror as the world around her faded away. Then, she felt herself falling, trapped in a void that sucked her from her conscious form and trapped her in a dark place utterly devoid of anything save her own tortured sense of self…

A faint cry from the other sidewalk snapped the wolf like pokemon out of her trance. She found herself slumped to the sidewalk, with no memory of actually falling. Her head was in a tizzy, and it took her a few seconds to remember where she was. Her vision blurred for a few seconds, then refocused once more.

The night around her was normal now, she found to her confusion. The shadows had stopped moving, and everything felt perfectly all right…well, not including the scene playing out on the other sidewalk.

The mightyena got to her paws with some difficulty, feeling unsteady and sluggish, as if she had slept for a month. Blinking dizzily, she turned in the direction of the cry. Her gaze came to rest on the umbreon and the granbull. They were further down the sidewalk opposite the one she stood on. The umbreon had given up on attacking, instead opting to stand at bay, back against a neat wooden fence. He winced painfully as the granbull tried to find some weakness in his defenses.

Kojau staggered off down the sidewalk, past the raging battle across the street. She focused on putting one paw in front of the other, tail drooping and dragging along behind her. She didn't even look up as light from the fire of the typhlosion and flareon's attacks randomly shone and dimmed again. Her mind and body felt broken, though not in a physical sense.

The battle was behind her now, and as she raised her head she saw she was at a good place to cross over to the scuffle going on between the umbreon and the granbull. The humans seemed to have forgotten all about their original prey, she noted with some relief. They were still focused intently on the battle before them. Kojau supposed it must be pretty exciting to them, though she didn't know why it seemed to give them so much pleasure. She thought she would probably never understand humans, not even in a million years.

Her paws came down on the street as she began to cross over to the opposite sidewalk. Her energy was returning somewhat, and there was an odd lightness in her head, though it did nothing to soothe the ever present dull ache there. The ache seemed to be part of her, she reflected, and she would probably feel as if she had lost something if it left. But that tingle going from between her ears to her backbone…that just didn't seem right.

She found herself on the opposite sidewalk now. The granbull hadn't noticed her, but the umbreon had, and his eyes flickered warily as he glanced at her. The granbull seemed to be toying with him, making lunges and retreating, occasionally scoring a hit on him, like a meowth playing with a pidgey.

But Kojau found this oddly welcoming. The granbull wasn't like the other pokemon, she thought. The others would probably have gone straight to the task of killing the umbreon, such was their empty bloodlust. The granbull was just a normal pokemon, and it did Kojau such good to see him that she just stared at him for a moment, as though trying to recover from the other two.

The granbull, however, had noticed her. He paused in his attacks on the umbreon and peered up at her. She saw a certain weakness in his eyes, something that told her he would not have attacked the umbreon had he been energetic and strong. The granbull was just as fearful as herself, Kojau thought, just as lost in the world. She smiled at him.

He was backing away from her, and she wondered why. She certainly didn't look like much…heck, she was even worse looking than the umbreon. She was certainly weaker looking than him.

The granbull whimpered a bit as she took a few confused steps toward him. He dropped to all fours from his previous cautious standing position, stubby tail seeming to try to tuck itself between his legs. In his vision, the pokemon standing before him seemed to shine with a faint white light in the night, and her eyes seemed to glow. She wasn't normal, and he was so used to normalcy that this was a severe shock to him. And, in addition to shining, the shadows of the night seemed to be swirling around her, menacing him, daring him to try to harm her…

With a terrified yelp, he turned tail and fled, racing along down the sidewalk and disappearing into the night. He left a very confused Kojau looking after him, and an equally exhausted umbreon.

Kojau stared after him for a few seconds longer, feeling awfully disturbed. She had seen fear in his eyes, naked fear, and it was of her. She hadn't wanted to be feared, and she was loath to look at the umbreon for fear that she would see the same look in his eyes.

"Well, I suppose I have to thank you." The umbreon's rich voice startled her, and she took a few wobbling steps back. "Though why he ran from you is a mystery to me. You don't look too threatening at the moment!" He laughed a bit, sounding relieved.

Kojau gave him a wan smile, hope lighting up her heart once more. He wasn't afraid of her. That was good. She had been so afraid he would fear her…she didn't think she could take that.

"I'm Azour." His voice came to her ears once again, and she decided immediately that she liked it. It had a soothing quality to it that made her feel nice and safe. His rings, pale yellow with exhaustion, shone a little more brightly as he spoke once more. "And yours?" He stared off down the sidewalk as he spoke, eyes narrowing at the sight of the battle.

"Umm…Kojau…" It dawned on her that that might not really be her name. If she couldn't remember anything else, how was it that she could remember her name? She felt a bit dismayed over this, and oddly cheated.

"Hey! I'm OK!" The umbreon's shout made her flatten her ears to the side of her head and snapped her out of her reverie as he stared down the sidewalk. "Firra! C'mon! We have to go! I'm safe now!"

Kojau stared in confusion as the flareon nimbly dodged an attack from the persian and ran up the typhlosion's back as he made to attack her, leaping off and racing toward them. She looked considerably more tired than she had been before, that was for sure, but she was fleet as ever as she raced toward them.

The umbreon, Azour, turned to Kojau. "You should come with us," he said quietly. "The humans might look for you. You helped us…but now we must run."

Kojau only nodded numbly, watching as the flareon came racing up to them. "You did it!" Her eyes lit up as she looked at Kojau. "I honestly didn't think you would be able to, you're so pathetic looking…" She seemed to glow with happiness and triumph.

Kojau blinked. She had been helpful? They were both treating her like a hero, but was she deserving of it? And they didn't seem to find anything abnormal about her. The feeling of finally being accepted made her want to faint with relief.

The humans were shouting, and Kojau could hear them making a great turmoil down the sidewalk. The two pokemon were coming toward them now, and the mightyena could practically feel their bloodlust and emptiness. She turned and watched them in a kind of morbid fascination, watched as the humans took their long sticks and fiddled with them, watched as the typhlosion powered up a flamethrower…

"Erranchos! We must go!" The flareon bumped Kojau with her shoulder, sending the mightyena staggering forward a few steps. "Can you run, Azour?"

The umbreon responded by leaping forward, rings gleaming powerfully once more, summoning up his last reserve of energy. Kojau found herself following him, though she didn't realize she was running until a few moments after her paws had started moving. The flareon bounded alongside her, and the three raced off down the moonlit sidewalk, outdistancing their pursuers, who weren't too fast.

Kojau's mind was in a fog once more. Everything was moving too swiftly for her. She was running now, but she was going too quickly. She wanted to slow down and enjoy life. She wanted to stop being in such a hurry. She wanted to learn…

"What's your name?" The words left her muzzle almost before she thought to utter them, directed at the flareon panting alongside her.

The little fire fox laughed aloud, and Kojau wondered how she could be so cheery after the whole ordeal. Her coat was spotted with blood, and she was burned in multiple places, though the wounds looked light. "Ah, how we forget the simplest things in our haste, though they can be the most important. I can tell you now that my name is Firra, though I know not your title…"

"Kojau." A small degree of satisfaction entered the mightyena's mind. Maybe everything would really be all right. Maybe she could stop worrying about things, clearing the clouds from her mind. And maybe, just maybe, she could finally find acceptance.

The wolf like pokemon smiled, her first true small since she could remember. Though she was running away from something, to her, it felt as if she was running toward something…a brighter future, and a newfound hope.

But the future is was certainly not anything to be trusted…and nothing should be believed at first glance…

* * *

(Whoo! This has to be the longest chapter I've ever written in my life! Thanks for reviewing, everyone! Negrek, I'm glad to hear you're interested in this. I do seem to add big city type things to my pokemon stories at times. I like that scene.Xanthic Growlithe Contract did inspire me to write something a little deeper, something a little more dark. And the whole experimental lab thing seems to be a common enough plot device in pokemon stories. Tiamat & Bahamut, if Deka feels like a dog to you, then I've achieved my goal!)


	5. Homecoming

Chapter Five-Homecoming

Kojau trotted along behind Firra and Azour. The two eons were walking leisurely along the alley ahead, having lost their pursuers long ago. Both seemed to shine with radiance, Firra from her inner fire and Azour from his rings. They seemed quite comfortable together, Kojau thought, and she wondered vaguely if they were mates.

Her pace was considerably slower than theirs. Her paws moved steadily over the ground beneath them, and the light in her eyes had faded somewhat. She wasn't losing energy, but the tingle going from her head to her spine was still there, and it was making her feel odd to say the least. At any moment, it seemed to would snap free and tear her apart from the inside, casting her limbs across the earth. But it didn't.

She wondered if perhaps it was some sort of other her, like another being inside her body. But that was silly-there could only be one you, right? She was sure she had never met a pokemon with more you's than itself…not counting doduo and magneton and possibly girafarig. That pokemon like that had other selves was a given. But there was that odd feeling in her spine…and it seemed to her sometimes as if she had something other, a different persona buried deep inside her, another side she didn't want to remember at all…

"Errancho! Walk with us, we don't want you left out!" Kojau was snapped out of her rather dark musings by Firra's voice, which seemed to be the opposite of her thoughts, bright and cheery. The mightyena's weary heart lit up a bit, and she jogged forward to the couple's side, trotting next to the umbreon, Azour.

He offered her a smile, eyes scanning her carefully for the first time. He did not much like what he saw. The creature beside him was emaciated, bones showing clearly through her pelt. Her breath whistled faintly in her throat like a wind blowing through a desert, and her step was mechanical. But, despite all this, she seemed to radiate life somehow, and there was a vague sense of importance about her he couldn't quite pinpoint. At the same time, however, there was something awfully dark lurking in those large, too-bright eyes.

However, Azour decided to ignore this. He didn't care at all for the way the poor pokemon shied away from him whenever he so much as looked at her, as if she was afraid he would deal her some sort of physical or mental blow. As he gazed upon her, he decided that she must have seen some rough times, and resolved to find out about her and try to help her with them.

"Kojau, was it?" He asked gently, wondering how to phrase the question of her origins without upsetting her or putting her on the defensive. As she nodded shyly, he continued. "I have to thank you again for saving me. I fear I did not make my gratitude for your heroic feat known satisfactorily back there, as we had little time." He allowed a small smile to come across his face as he saw a flicker of elusive happiness in the mightyena's eyes, and he continued, encouraged. "I owe you my life, and if you ever want anything at all, all you have to do is ask it of me."

Kojau took a while to find her tongue. He was actually thanking her, and profusely! But…she hadn't really done anything. All she had done was smile at the granbull, and he had run away, and... She decided she had a hard time accepting good things when they came along, and determined to try for a better state of mind with those matters. "It…it was nothing, really, I did not fight…" Her voice was soft and oddly unsteady.

"Oh, but you must not be so modest!" Firra spoke from the other side of Azour in a laughing voice, peering over the umbreon's back at Kojau. "You didn't have to stop to help us at all, and that in itself is encouraging. I doubt I could have saved Azour without you, and both of us probably would have perished." Her looked turned serious. "Never underestimate yourself, young Kojau. Others would…take advantage of one such as you."

Kojau looked back at her, blinking a bit. Firra's last words rang oddly through the mightyena's consciousness. _Others who would take advantage…take advantage… _Her gaze became oddly soft and introversive as she thought to herself. That seemed too terribly familiar…but she wouldn't let anyone else take advantage of her, right? How could she? She was just a lone pokemon, she couldn't…but she had. Somewhere she had, she was sure of it. It related to that dark image of herself that she dreaded to bring up, that inverse image of…of…

Azour watched in no small concern as Kojau's gaze turned soft and troubled, and her ears gradually lay back on her head in fear. He looked up the alley, searching for something for her to be afraid of, and found nothing of substance. But when he peered back at her, he saw the look of nervous anxiety on her face as clearly as before, pained and tight. He couldn't stand that pained visage, and so began to speak once more, as if to snap her out of whatever dark thoughts she had immersed herself in. "So…Kojau. You're not from around here, are you?" He tried to make his voce as soft and non-threatening as possible.

Kojau started a bit as the umbreon's voice broke into her thoughts. Her worried mind seemed to cool a bit as his soothing tone registered in her head, and her eyes lost their pained look. "I…" She turned to look at him, fully intending to answer…and found she had nothing to say. For all she knew, she could be 'from around here'…or not. She had no way of knowing. But if he knew this, he might become wary of her, might outcast her from this fragile web of friendship she had established with the two of them. Then the shadows would come again, entwining her in their darkness, and she would be caught like a fly in a spider's web and never be free again and…

"What's wrong, Kojau?" Firra's voice snapped her back to reality again, and she took a long draught of air in as she realized she had not been breathing. As she turned shamefully to the flareon, the concern she saw reflected in the eon's eyes made her feel very guilty indeed.

"I'm…it's…nothing." For some reason, that made her feel even more guilty. She didn't want to deceive them, but the lingering fear that they might desert her if they knew of her condition kept her from telling the whole truth. There was another fear there as well, though…the fear that they might know more about her than she did, and tell her something she didn't want to know about that other side of herself. "I…I just…I'm not from around here. You were right in that assumption, Azour." Her voice was thick and hesitant, and she couldn't look either of them full in the face.

Azour sensed she wasn't telling them the whole truth, and he knew Firra knew as well as the two traded a sidelong glance. The umbreon studied the mightyena as the three walked on in silence. He noted the way the shadows seemed attracted to her; being a darkness pokemon, he could see how the darkness just barely became blacker around her body. And yet…and yet, there seemed to be a frail light there, radiating around her, like static. And there was that odd feeling there, as if she wasn't quite what she seemed, as if she was something more. But she was just so innocent seeming, so naïve…

"I think you'll like where we're going," Firra said softly, her words shattering the uncomfortable silence that hung around them. Kojau twitched an ear and peered up at the flareon as she spoke, listening. "We live with a clan of other eons, just a little further into this maze of alleys."

"An eon clan? Here?" Kojau's words were soft and depressed sounding. She was even a bit surprised at herself as she heard what she sounded like, and berated herself mentally. They were worried about her, she could sense it. She didn't want to have to worry them anymore, because she wasn't really worth worrying about, at least not in that sense.

"Yes, it does seem a bit odd that an eon clan would be in a city such as this, does it not?" The umbreon's voice was as soft as before, and Kojau enjoyed listening to its rich depth. "I believe it all started out with an eevee breeding facility that began long ago somewhere in the middle of the city. Quite a few of the eevees and eons escaped one day, I think, and roamed free. Though many were caught, a few of the most wily ones were able to evade capture and eventually paired up and had pups. Not too long ago, only a few generations, we came together again and formed a family. Though there are not many of us…" Azour looked a bit sad. "And we become depleted every month. People want to catch us, and when we fight back, they label us 'Dangerous and to be Destroyed.'"

Firra nodded sadly. "Yes, humans are a greedy species. It's in their blood." The glow around her intensified a bit. Kojau was beginning to think the strength of the glow depended upon her moods.

"And it's not in ours as well?" Azour laughed lowly. "Judge not lest ye be judged." He gave the flareon a playful bump with his muzzle, and she poked him right back, laughing.

Kojau watched them both, feeling as if there was a chasm opened in her heart and not even knowing why. They were so happy with each other, so open and trusting. She, on the other hand…she wasn't. She didn't think she'd ever be, unnatural thing that she was. The mightyena hung her head low to the ground, wondering if life would ever be satisfactory for her, or if, for that matter, it ever had.

The alley the three walked was about to emerge onto a sidewalk. Kojau glanced about, sensing people not far ahead. She really didn't want to be among humanity again, for they might try to catch her or her two acquaintances. She shrank back, watching as Firra broke away from Azour and nosed around the brush at the side of the alley…revealing an entrance, so thickly covered by weeds that it looked to be a part of the alley itself.

"C'mon!" She grinned at Kojau, light dimming a bit. "This is where we've gotta go…" Her voice trailed off as she nosed through the thick weeds and was gone, seeming as if she had never been there at all.

Kojau thought this was an interesting idea. What if you could just go through something and step into oblivion, removing yourself for all eternity, removing yourself from all worries? The prospect, though she thought it ought to seem spooky, tugged at her. If something like that ever presented itself to her, she thought maybe she would go. Leaving would be good…such a release…and walking the cool white sands of the desert of time for the rest of her life, without a worry or-

"Kojau!" She blinked as Azour nudged her. The umbreon gave her a friendly grin. "Don't space out on me now!" He laughed, nudging her toward the entrance. "I know you like to stop and think about things, but now isn't the time…I can tell Firra is just itching to introduce you to the rest of us…"

Kojau wondered dryly if the rest would see her and want nothing to do with her as she pushed through the weeds and into a very narrow, claustrophobic alleyway that led off to the east. She coughed slightly for no apparent reason, feeling trapped. The alley snaked off to the east and away from the noisy human roads and sidewalks, and eventually branched off into one that led straight, toward a bunch of ramshackle, tall buildings.

Kojau walked in silence the entire time, feeling detached from the world in general. She nearly forgot to stop her mechanical walking as the two ahead of her came to a halt in front of a huge, tall building and started nosing around the bottom of it, eventually kicking away some stray dirt and revealing a large hole.

"Abandoned. Humans like to abandon things and just leave them." Firra smiled, trotting up to Kojau. "Well, their loss is our gain. C'mon…" She turned and made for the hole. Kojau followed her uncertainly, peering up at the building. It went up many stories, but it looked old and warped and unsteady.

"It…won't fall, will it?" Kojau's soft voice held a good amount of worry as she followed Firra and Azour toward the hole, pausing near it. "I mean, it looks sort of unsteady, you know? I know you've probably been living in it for a while, but…" She trailed off, feeling remarkably lame and wishing she hadn't said anything at all. She hadn't wanted to show any distrust in Firra and Azour...she was just so easily intimidated.

Azour only looked at her understandingly, much to her great relief. "I can see why you worry. It is rather imposing, yes, but we have made this one of our scattered homes across the city of generations now, and it remains our most steadfast and undisturbed as of yet." He smiled. "It may seem odd that a clan of eons would deign to live here, but no humans ever come here, and everyone appears to have forgotten about it…" He made for the hole in the bottom of the building and was through in an instant, slinking through and disappearing along with Firra.

Kojau blinked, shifting uncomfortably as she stared at the hole, then the building, then the hole again. She wondered if she could perhaps make a break for it. She didn't like the idea of being trapped in there; it felt, to her, like being swallowed up by some great creature made of crumbling cement and stone.

Something was peering at her. She twitched a bit as she felt a set of eyes on her, and, without thinking, flinched away to the side, staring at the hole. Two large yellow eyes sparkled in that hole, studying her mischievously from the deeper shadows. Kojau knew those eyes didn't belong to either Azour or Firra, for Azour's eyes were a bright shade of red and Firra's were a dark brown bordering on black. Such electric golden eyes startled her a bit, for they carried a youthful curiosity and wonder at the world, and intrigued Kojau after a minute, though she dared not go any closer.

A second later, a soft blue glow slowly began to emanate from the hole, forming itself gradually into the shape of a ring between the eyes. Two others seemed to float oddly behind it, twitching a bit from time to time.

Kojau stared. She tried to think of a pokemon she had seen before with this sort of coloration and failed utterly. The soft radiance seeming to hang on the pokemon in the hole made her curious, as she had never seen a pokemon that seemed to have such a natural glow in spirit that emanated from its body.

"Hi." The voice was a bit high pitched and male, carrying an energetic tone to it. Kojau stared as the figure in the hole, obviously having studied her enough, began to emerge. The dusky black form of an umbreon flowed forward from the hole in the bottom of the building, moving with the sinuous grace that was so common to his species.

He was an interesting specimen, that was for sure. As Kojau had noted before, his eyes were an odd electric yellow color, not the deep red eyes that others of his kind sported. His fur was a bit longer than other umbreon's, or perhaps it was just scruffy. A large tuft of it hung over his head, slightly obscuring the ring there. But the oddest thing about him by far was that his rings were a soft blue color bordering on white that reminded one of new fallen snow.

"You're Kojau?" That high voice again, grating on her nerves. He almost squeaked when he spoke, and his blue rings dimmed and flared up again with every word he said…or maybe it was just when the volume of his voice changed. He seemed not to notice her discomfort, for he continued blithely on. "Firra and Azour told me about you, how you saved Azour and all, and how you were still outside, and they told me not to bug you, but I just _had_ to come out." He paused for a breath, eyeing her. "You're _skinny."_

"Umm." Kojau tried to collect herself, feeling a bit frazzled over the whole situation. "Yes. I…I suppose I am." She stared at him oddly, feeling at a complete loss for things to say.

Apparently, this was not true for him. He only smiled and started to talk once more, high voice almost carrying a sing-song quality to it. "Well, anyway, I'm Kiete. And you're Kojau. Yes, you are." He seemed to fairly tremble with pent up energy. His rings continuously shifted in their color from a bright blue to a light blue to a white color, and sometimes they suddenly winked out and didn't show up at all, only to flare up again full force the next moment. Kojau found it quite disconcerting to try to keep up with their shifts in brightness and color, and it gave her a headache to look at them too long.

"Why are you not coming in?" His voice softened up a bit, tone revealing him to be a very young umbreon indeed. "The rest of us would like to meet you. I mean, if you think they wouldn't like you or something…they _will _like you." He grinned mischievously, yellow eyes sparkling a bit like flecks of gold caught in the sun. "And if they don't like you, I'll _make _them like you. I can do that, you know. I'm very annoying sometimes." He seemed to bounce up and down in front of Kojau, who had no doubt what he spoke was true.

"I…I don't know…" The mightyena refused to meet his gaze, thinking about how she had lied to Firra and Azour earlier about not being from around. They had trusted her, DID trust her, and she hadn't told them the whole truth. And, despite that, they had taken her with them, shown her this place, trusting her not to reveal them. And the knowledge that she didn't trust them, _could not _trust them…it ate at her like acid.

"What's wrong?" A nudge aimed at her shoulder sent her yelping off to the side, whirling around to face a very surprised looking Kiete. He blinked at her, a slow grin stretching over his face. "Hey, you wanted to play? You didn't tell me…" His grin widened, and he leaped at her.

"But…" Kojau flung herself out of the way, dodging a playful slap from his paw. "But I don't…AH!" She flailed about as he suddenly shot up underneath her, bonking his head into her chest.

"Your fur smells weird!" He bounced out from under her, leaving her to sit down with a thump on the ground, confused and frazzled. What had that been all about…?

He simply sat across from her, grinning lopsidedly. One ear was cocked to the side, the tuft of fur on his head messed up and tossed carelessly into one of his inordinately large, yellow eyes.

"You…you are…" Kojau panted harshly, unable to find her tongue. He was such an enigma to her! She had never met one like him, so carefree and playful. What was more, he had taken her mind off feeling sorry for herself. For that was what she had been doing lately, she thought wryly, though she had tried to disguise it as being thoughtful or worrying. She had to stop feeling so sorry for herself.

"Kiete!" The laughing voice from the hole unquestionably belonged to Firra, and both pokemon turned their heads to look at her at exactly the same time. "I told you not to go out and bug that poor thing until she was ready to come in!" The flareon tossed the flame-like tuft of fur on her head, ruffling up her luxurious mane. "You two look like two peas in a pod!"

"He…he wasn't bothering me." Kojau let a small smile spread across her muzzle, finding to her amazement that she wasn't worried at all anymore…well, at least not as worried as she had been before. The young umbreon's sunny disposition seemed to have taken a weight off her shoulders, for the time being.

"Well, are you coming in, Errancho?" Firra smiled welcomingly, moving aside. "I should hope you do not fear the building…or Kiete, for that matter!" She flashed a toothy grin. "Though he is definitely one to be feared, eh?"

The blue ringed umbreon growled and put on a ferocious look, though he couldn't hide that little smile of his for long. "Fear me!" He moved toward the hole, and laughed as Firra pummeled him lightly. Once there, he turned around and peered back at Kojau, who was still standing uncertainly outside. "You coming, 'Ko?"

Those large, hopeful yellow eyes proved to be too much for the mightyena to stand against, and she gave in and stepped forward, slinking into the hole in the building before she had any time to change her mind. Firra followed right behind her, and Kiete's bright blue ringed tail seeming to float along ahead was like a torch lighting the way.

"Well, here we are!" Kojau started as Firra's exclamation echoed in her ears and she stepped out into the first floor of an old building. Glancing around herself, she saw the door out front appeared to have been shoved into both walls a while ago as they nearly collapsed, and now was melded with them and impossible to open. The few windows in the room let in some of the early morning light, and the sight made Kojau glad. The rest of the large room looked pretty much done in, the few articles of furniture there sagging mournfully. The dusty peeling carpet beneath Kojau's paws might have been a shade of lavender once upon a time before fading to uniform grey with age. There was a staircase leading upward a little ways off, built into the old, cracked walls.

"It's…it feels ancient." Kojau looked awed. There was something about the room that felt very old, though not bad. There were no bad feelings about the place whatsoever, only a vague sense of happiness and just a hint of longing.

"We think it used to be a facility of some sort, a daycare and fitness center combined." Kojau jumped as a new voice came to her ears, and whirled about to see a very old looking jolteon standing near one of the windows and regarding her amusedly. His fur was grayed with age, spikes blunted a bit. There was, however, a good deal of cunning in his eyes, and Kojau reminded herself that elders were often the smartest of them all, and should be respected.

"Aruva!" Kiete obviously didn't think along those lines, for he went bouncing right up to the jolteon and attempted to tackle him. Kojau winced a bit as the eon gave a huffing breath and battered the blue ringed unbreon away from him, good humor shining in his eyes.

There were several other eons congregating around them, and Kojau could sense many different personalities. She could see a calm looking vaporeon out of the corner of her eye, and a young looking espeon who could very well have been Kiete's sister. Azour was there as well, and other eons were starting to trickle down the stairs, watching the group curiously.

The jolteon, Aruva, hopped up on an old couch and reclined on it, indulgently swatting at Kiete as the umbreon tried to pull him down again. The little thing was so full of energy that it made Kojau tired just looking at him, and she watched him in a certain fascination, wondering just how something so small could have so much energy.

"You seem a little more at ease after having been with young Kiete." Kojau looked over at Firra as the flareon spoke, sitting down beside her. "I shall have him introduce you to the rest of us, as he seems to have taken quite a liking to you."

Kojau took a great shuddering breath, feeling as if she had just been shoved into something a bit over her head and was being flung along without knowing quite where she was going to end up next. "I…I wonder why…" Her voice was a bit raspy and low, and Firra laughed at it.

"Oh, do cheer up." The flareon grinned brightly at her. "I'm sure everyone will like you. You've got a charming, unassuming personality."

Kojau felt oddly hot. "Well, that's just how I am, I suppose. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone by being snappy or stand-offish, though I fear I am a bit of the latter at times." She watched Kiete for a moment, wondering just how to phrase the question that had been gnawing at her ever since she had laid eyes upon him. "Ummm…Firra…what exactly is he?" That hadn't been phrased very well at all, and Kojau berated herself for not being smoother.

Firra, however, didn't seem irritated. "Oh…I suppose you've never seen a shining pokemon." She took a long breath, as though wondering how to explain shining pokemon to the mightyena. "See…a shining pokemon is a different color than a normal one. Shining espeons, for example, are rumored to be a green color, and shining umbreons are as you see Kiete. They have blue rings and golden eyes, instead of yellow rings and crimson eyes. And…it is rumored that they are born with a piece of starlight in their souls, a sort of odd radiance that dates back to a time when shining pokemon were common and revered as visionaries." She smiled. "But that's a tale for another time."

Kojau blinked, digesting this information. "So…that means he's special?"

"Not in any sense that he's better than any of us," Firra replied quickly. "He's just a normal little energetic eon underneath that odd coat of his, nothing more and nothing less." She heaved a great sigh. "He's going to have problems with humans wanting to catch him, though. We've taught him how to dim his rings and change their color. He can make them a near white color, and, with the right amount of energy and dimming, give them an almost yellow look. But still…if humans got a good look at him, especially his eyes, they'd see him for what he was. It takes him a lot of concentration to hold that image, and he's going to have to be very careful…very careful indeed…poor little oridos…" She shook her head sadly.

Kojau blinked. "Oridos? I though his name was Kiete…"

"Oh!" Firra laughed heartily. "Oh dear, I suppose I have been dreadfully confusing with my fancy words and all." She smiled. "The legend I was talking about relating to shiny pokemon also relates to the olden language, in which I know a few words. Oridos generally is a term of sympathy for a friend, ketting literally means idiotic, Errancho means friend or companion, and roghat is a sort of curse or an exclamation of disgust. Generally, ro can be added onto the beginning of a word to show strong feeling." She chuckled as she saw the confused look on Kojau's face. "No need to remember all that, though. Now is not the time to explain it in detail, and that jolteon over there, Aruva, knows how to tell a good legend better than I do. But, like I said, now is not the time."

Kojau blinked after her as she swept gracefully away from the mightyena's side and wandered over toward Kiete. The wolf like pokemon suddenly felt oddly alone and unprotected, with all these strange eyes boring into her. Paranoid musings began to infiltrate her brain, fear of not being accepted and being cast out and-

"Kojau!" Firra was at her side once more, along with Kiete, who looked as though he was feeling very important. "Kojau, Kiete is going to introduce you to us all."

Kojau blinked as little Kiete nudged her in the side and skipped off toward the vaporeon she had seen earlier, motioning for Kojau to follow. "C'mon!" He squeaked happily, voice gaining in pitch as he grew excited.

Kojau tried not to flatten her ears to the side of her head, and shot Firra a nervous look. A barrier in her outer appearance came down suddenly, and allowed the eon to see how frightened she really was. "Firra…what if…what if…" She was a bit surprised at how dismayed her own voice sounded.

Firra looked sympathetic. "Kojau, it _will be all right. _You're the hero of tonight, and no one here would even dream of snubbing you, must less casting you out." She flashed the mightyena a dazzling smile, nudging her toward Kiete and the vaporeon, the former of whom was bouncing excitedly and a little impatiently and the latter just smiling calmly and welcomingly in Kojau's general direction.

Feeling somewhat encouraged, Kojau walked slowly up, introducing herself to the vaporeon in reserved tones. The finned eon was surprisingly warm toward her, quite the opposite of what she had feared, and before she knew it Kiete was leading her off once more to introduce her to a grizzled looking flareon.

The hours after that passed by in a haze of happiness, the first true happiness Kojau could remember experiencing. The eons there treated her like a long lost sister, and seemed to actually want to talk with her. By the time the introductions had been made, Kojau felt safe and protected at long last, as though a chasm in her had been filled. She wondered about it all as she lay down beside Kiete and Firra, listening to Azour speak of common things happening in the city, surrounded by warmth and friendship at last…

* * *

Whoo, that was fun to write! . I just love shining umbreons, with those big golden eyes and all. Negrek, you have a talent for picking up the most miniscule, obscure things. Thank you for pointing that out to me, I hadn't even realized I had done that! 0.0 To all the reviewers, thanks for reviewing, it does me good! Till next time! (Oh, and by the way, since I'm a sucker for asking people about their favorites, who is your favorite character so far? I'm going to ask this every five chapters or so, because it is an intertesting question and I can't stop myself from asking it. )


	6. Legend

Chapter Six-Legend

The butterfly's wings pumped cheerily, its meandering flight taking it swiftly through the air in front of the window. The wind blew it slightly off its original flight path, but it didn't seem to mind this much, as it continued on without looking too discouraged.

Kojau envied it. It probably didn't have to think too much about its various troubles or problems, and it was just so free and simple, having but one direction and goal in mind. It had no complex, odd worries or situations, for it wasn't meant to, being made to play a smaller part in the world than pokemon like Kojau.

The mightyena was currently laying out in front of a window up in one of the building's many rooms. This had become her favorite retreat over the past several days she had been here. A small, cheery room, it was located at the end of a long hall on the building's top floor, high above the ground. It was a bit hard to get to, for one had to go all the way to the top of the building and access the roof through a hole in the ceiling, for the hall that had been used originally to get to this room had caved in long ago. From the roof, one had to drop down another hole and navigate cumbersomely through the dark attic before dropping through the ceiling into the hall that actually led to the room.

All in all, that meant not many of the eons came her regularly, though it wasn't all that hard to get to, not when you got the hang of the attic's maze. Kojau had stumbled upon it quite by accident the day after she had gotten to the building. Tired of the constant bustle in the more used rooms, she had desired a bit of peace and quiet, and so had gone searching for a quiet place she wouldn't be disturbed at. She had found the room later in the evening of that day, after a good bit of searching.

It was a very nice room, she thought. Airy and small, the window in it had shattered or fallen off some time in the past, and now the large opening let in the breeze and sunshine freely. The walls were a white color, and the carpeting was old and soft and worn. There was a quaint, broken dresser to the side, and its sagging doors revealed old child's toys. The room had an innocent feel to it, and Kojau found she could truly clear her mind here, could keep herself from being intimidated by the world and instead look at it as a place of beauty and hope.

This room was situated at the front of the building, and there was a grand view of the bustling city from it. But what Kojau found most appealing was that one could see the sea stretching out in the distance, see the setting sun glimmering off the water and the shine stretching past anyone's range of sight…

Kojau closed her eyes, shutting the view out for a moment and seeing it in her mind's eye, feeling the breezes blowing in from the sea ruffling the shaggy black fur of her mane. She knew there was something important waiting for her beyond that sea, but for now she was content with just knowing it was there, something constant and everlasting. It was life.

A soft footfall and a faint heat from behind her alerted Kojau to the fact that Firra had entered the room. The flareon had a sort of presence to her, an unmistakable hardy, lasting aura that reminded one of a warm fire on a cold night, and brought feelings of determination and hope.

The flareon padded softly up to where the mightyena lay in front of the window and sat down beside her, radiating a soothing heat. For a good while, the two just remained there side by side, content in one another's presence and the general good feeling in the room.

It was Firra who broke the silence first, long after she had come. But then, time seemed to stand still in the room, so who knew for sure? "Nice place, this. I could see how it would suit you."

Kojau mulled her words over in her mind for a while, wondering what her purpose was. She mentally scolded herself soon after for being so suspicious and looking for some reason for the flareon to be here. She had every reason to trust Firra. "Yes, it is nice." The mightyena's voice came out soft and smooth, cleansed of the worry that had been heavy in it several days ago. "I can sort of feel the ocean from here, and it gives me a sense of balance."

She opened her eyes finally to see Firra smiling and nodding slowly. "Yes, the sea holds a certain intrigue for me as well, though I am a fire pokemon." She chuckled richly. "But I suppose the fact that I have no outward flames helps out a good bit."

Kojau gave only a faint smiled in return, and the two lapsed into silence once more. Their gazes stretched out into the distance, Kojau's on the sea and Firra's on the buildings and cars and people, as if trying to see something hidden in it all. Eventually the eon spoke once more.

"It's a good feeling to be able to see people and pokemon, but know they cannot see you, eh?" She blinked slowly, looking thoughtful. "I have often felt I could become trapped in the feeling of being able to watch and not be watched myself, as if I was there but not part of the world. It has a way of washing away one's worries."

Kojau thought to herself for a moment, pondering the flareon's words. "I suppose. But then, what if you saw something bad happening and you couldn't do anything about it because it was so far away? If you were removed from everything, then I would think you would feel helpless to do anything, and wouldn't be able to interact when you felt the need to." She paused for a moment before speaking again. "I would think it could get very lonely, and frustrating as well."

Firra looked sideways at her. "Yet here you are, purposefully removed from everyone else here, and you do not look frustrated or lonely in the least." Her words seemed to hang in the air between the two, as if they carried a great deal of meaning.

Kojau took a moment to find her tongue, feeling a bit guilty suddenly. It was becoming a very familiar feeling, she reflected wryly. "I…I'm sorry for removing myself from you like this. I really ought to have been more considerate…" She realized suddenly that she had been spending a lot of time on her own, even though the eons were never anything but kind to her, making sure she was 'fed up,' as they put it. Indeed, her coat was becoming glossier and her frame filling out in the slightest bit since she had started eating good meals at least once a day. Azour had jokingly told her she was evolving from a skeleton into a pokemon at last yesterday.

"Oh, don't take it like that!" Firra laughed, lightening the atmosphere once more. "I didn't mean it in that way. I know you're more of a thinker who would usually rather watch than take part in things, though I don't think Kiete understands that too well."

Kojau laughed as well, surprising herself. "Yes, Kiete is quite demanding." A fond look came across her face as she thought of the energetic little shining umbreon and his antics. "I just…I can't keep up with him!" She trailed off, grinning. "He's so energetic and happy, and he seems to always want to take part in something active."

"He likes you, you know." Firra spoke softly, though her tone was still a bit humorous. "He's really taken to you, and he looks up to you. I don't think I've ever seen him become so adoring of anyone like he has you." She seemed to think for a moment. "You know…his parents were caught and taken away by humans a long while, back, when he was very, very young."

Kojau started. "Caught…you mean, caught by humans?" Her eyes were wide as she thought about this, about what such an existence would mean, especially to a pokemon used to being wild and free.

"Yes." Firra looked truly subdued for the first time since Kojau had met her, and the heat around her died down just a bit. "He's always talking about how someday he will go and rescue them." She laughed bitterly. "He barely even remembers what they look like, though. An umbreon and an espeon. What an unlikely liaison…"

"I though psychic types didn't like dark types." Kojau peered up at Firra. Once again, there was that nagging, irritating feeling that she had no idea where and how she had stumbled upon that bit of information. It was just…_there_. She didn't really care to think too deeply on it, though, for whenever she started to try to really think about something from her clouded past, that odd tingling feeling in her spine became stronger. It was a very odd feeling, and Kojau didn't like it at all.

Firra nodded, as if to herself. "Well, they are radically different, but so far I haven't noticed any sort of hatred or even natural dislike between them." She peered over at Kojau questioningly. "Where did you hear that they didn't like each other?"

"I…don't remember," the pokemon answered truthfully, silently cheering herself. She hadn't had to lie that time!

Firra still looked a bit questioning, but nodded anyway. She moved a bit closer to the window and placed her paws on the edge of it, peering down at the ground. There were no eons out there currently, but once in a while, if you listened closely, you could hear the faint bustle of the eons inside the building and occasionally Kiete's rather shrill voice shouting something or other.

"Is he _ever_ quiet?" Kojau's face took on a faintly amused expression. Kiete must have been feeling energetic today. She was suddenly very glad she wasn't down there at the moment…

"Only in his sleep." Firra sighed, smiling. "He can get quite annoying sometimes, I'll say that. But he's loving and loyal, and actually quite sharp. He has excellent senses. In fact, he'll probably end up finding this little retreat of yours soon enough…"

Kojau blanched. "He…you won't tell him, will you?" Her voice took on a pleading tone as she looked at the flareon beside her, desperation in her eyes. "I mean…he sort of drives me insane at times." There wasn't even a bit of untruth in that statement.

Firra laughed again. "Oh, don't worry, I won't reveal you. I would just be very, very careful if I were you when leaving or entering this place, though. Kiete would not be above tracking you here and finding out where your retreat is."

Kojau smiled. "Thank you," she said gratefully, feeling very thankful indeed. "I am indebted to you."

Firra smirked. "Well, you can pay off that debt by coming down a bit more than you do. We'd all like to get to know you a little better, I think." Her tone could not possibly be more gentle, and Kojau could not sense any pushiness or exasperation in it at all.

"I'll try." The mightyena sighed to herself, letting the breeze caress her body, tousling the shaggy black fur going down her back and to her tail. "It's just…well, it's _hard _for me. I'm not really used to being around other pokemon, and I'm always afraid that…that…" She stopped, feeling disoriented suddenly and wondering about herself.

"Afraid of what?" Firra peered down at her from her sitting position, eyes soft and unassuming. "Kojau, we're not going to bite you when your back is turned."

"I know…I…" Kojau let out a great shuddering breath, wanting desperately to change the subject. The flareon only looked at her sympathetically.

"Well. You were wondering about that legend?" Firra spoke after a short silence, taking them back onto safer ground. "You were asking about it yesterday, and how it related to little Kiete and these foreign words I use."

Kojau looked relived. "Yes. Yes, it sounded interesting to me." She looked up at the flareon from her position on the ground, eyes bright. "I would love to hear it if you would tell it."

Firra gave herself a little shake, the bushy fur of her mane ruffling out a bit. "Well, I don't know all the intricacies of it, and Aruva could tell it to you better than I. But I suppose I'll take a shot at it." She settled herself into a more comfortable position as Kojau watched her, happily anticipating a good story.

"This is the legend of the olden times," Firra began finally, after drawing out the suspense for a few moments and collecting herself. "It was back when all pokemon spoke one language. Humans either were on a different part of the world or didn't exist yet, and there was harmony among all pokemon." She paused for a moment, as if wondering how to explain the next part. "There was a sort of place, a different dimension all pokemon could access that put them in harmony with one another and the world around them. It was a sort of dream time, a sacred place of higher consciousness that the pokemon then could somehow trance themselves into, could ascend to. It…supposedly, it held the power to influence things, because it was an overview of the world, for it tapped into the life stream of living things and the consciousness of the earth. Through this, it was possible to do the _impossible_, to heal the wounded and transport oneself to different places and perhaps even to different times." Firra frowned to herself. "As I said, I don't really know all the intricacies of it, only that it was sort of like-

"A desert." Kojau had no idea she had spoken until the words had left her mouth, and then there was no taking them back. She went on hurriedly as Firra gave her an odd, surprised look. "A white desert, with shifting white sands, and where it is always nighttime. The stars there are brighter and closer than they are here, and they are always out." She stopped, feeling frazzled. She had often imagined that sort of place, and it gave her peace when she had none.

"Yeeees…" Firra was giving her a penetrating look, but she said nothing of it, which relieved her companion beyond measure. "Yes, that was how it was. And as I said, all pokemon had the power to tap into it, but only the shining pokemon had the power to directly use it. It was said that they were born with a piece of the higher place's starlight in their souls, a connection that gave them their odd radiance and different coloration. Shining pokemon back then were vastly more common that they are now, and they used their power over the higher place for the good of all pokemon. It wasn't in their nature to use it for evil. They were the balancers of the pokemon world, the connection, the calmness, the healers." Firra sighed to herself. "But alas, good things cannot last. This is probably the part of the legend that is hardest to make out or tell, but I shall try as best I can. Supposedly, there was some sort of evil that corrupted the consciousness and harmony, a lust for power and an urge to use the higher place for evil. I don't know exactly how it happened, but the higher place was fatally tampered with and sealed off forever. It wiped itself completely from the normal pokemons' minds, and the shining pokemon wasted away and died soon afterward. Along with the removal of the higher consciousness came the different languages, branching off from the universal language and making it so all pokemon could only use their names to speak, though they could usually understand one another. The only reason I know some words in this language is that I met a seer a while back, and lived with him long enough to learn a few words." Firra paused for a breath, then continued. "It…it is said that the extremely rare shining pokemon can connect to the higher place somehow, though I have never met or heard of one who could." She frowned. "And I have never told Kiete. I beseech you to refrain from telling him that part of the legend. It is better for him to think that all pokemon, even the shining ones, had equal access to the power, and that it was wiped from all their minds back then." She fell silent then, leaving Kojau to contemplate her words.

The mightyena had a lot to contemplate indeed. That tingle in her spine had grown more prominent with every word Firra had spoken, and the mention of the white desert…it left her feeling very confused indeed. She found herself yearning after answers that just weren't there, and confused, hazy images that floated just out of her reach.

She did nothing as Firra silently got to her paws and padded toward the exit of the room, the familiar heat fading away.

Only when the flareon turned and looked back at her did she look up and meet her eyes, and found only concern and understanding there. "Kojau…" Firra began hesitantly. "If…if you ever need any help, you would like to have someone trustworthy to talk to, do not hesitate to hunt down Azour or me. We…we won't betray your trust." And with those odd words, she was gone, moving away from the entrance to the room and vanishing as if she had never been there, leaving a very disturbed, pensive Kojau in her wake.

* * *

The night was cool and somehow bright. The stars were out, and the moon was full and lit up the night with a pale, ghostly light. The building stood like a huge sentinel in the darkness, and Kojau paused for a moment to peer up at it, feeling confused.

What was she doing out here, anyway? She had found herself leaving the room shortly after evening had set in, mind in a whirl. She had felt that she needed to do something, something to get her mind off Firra's words. And now here she was, having snuck down to the eastern exit of the building, using a roundabout way to avoid notice.

She just needed to get away for a bit, she decided as she turned and padded off into the night, for once paying the shadows no mind. She would return soon, before anyone noticed she was gone.

The mightyena trotted steadily along for a while, taking the alleys she found naturally to avoid any notice, heading toward the outskirts of the city where she knew she could find some peace and quiet in the scant neighborhoods. She had no idea how long she had been walking when she finally emerged onto one of the long sidewalks, staring out at the road that intersected the two sidewalk lanes. Rows of small houses gleamed in the moonlight, faint noises coming from some.

Kojau stepped out onto the right sidewalk, pausing in her walking and reflecting just how much this neighborhood seemed like the one she had seen the battle in, though she knew it wasn't. City humans must have an affinity for uniformity, she decided as she regarded the moonlit neighborhood.

There was something watching her from behind, she realized. It was not altogether an unfamiliar feeling, and she remembered it from that time when she had wavered in entering the building. _Kiete. _

Kojau turned around slowly. The first thing she made out were the two blue rings floating around in the air and the one ring between them. Then she saw the large golden eyes and the small, lithe black body.

"Hello, Kiete." She spoke softly as the little umbreon came up beside her, peering at her questioningly. "You…umm…you better turn those rings down."

"Ooooh…right!" The little umbreon spoke loudly at first, then dropped his voice and the brightness of his rings at the same time, almost fading them out altogether. Kojau blinked in surprise, startled. She found she could just barely see a faint glow coming off the rings when she squinted, along with that peculiar radiance he had that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Why are you out here?" Kiete sat down when he realized she wasn't going to move on, shaking himself a bit, fur fluffing up and long ears banging against the sides of his head. "You aren't leaving us, right?" His eyes were large and hopeful as he looked up at her, and they seemed to melt her. "I don't want you to leave." His voice was barely a whisper, and it held a pitiable, pleading note in it, as if he would die should she opt to leave.

Kojau found herself sitting down beside him, letting out a long breath. "No," she replied finally, scuffing a paw around in the dust on the sidewalk. "No, I'm not leaving. I just…I just needed to get away for a bit, you know? I've heard some things lately that disturbed me, and I needed to think about them."

Kiete looked to be thinking about her words, and Kojau was quite surprised that he could actually adopt a truly pensive expression, being as hyperactive as he was. She thought perhaps he understood-for a full five seconds. Then, that thoughtful look left his face as quickly as it had come, and Kojau flinched a bit as that energetic light entered his eyes again, like static flickering around to shock anyone who came near. "Can I think about it with you?" His voice was as high pitched as ever, but Kojau though she ought to be glad that he was actually making a conscious effort to keep its volume down.

"Well, I guess you could." The mightyena found herself wondering just how he thought he would be able to do that. "I can't exactly share it, though. I'm not ready." She gazed up at the cold, unfeeling stars above, as if they could give her the answers she so desperately craved.

"That's Ok." The young umbreon peered up at her, cocking his head in a cute way that melted her heart all over again. "C'mon, 'Ko, be happy!" He bounced to his feet, bonking his shoulder against the dismayed mightyena next to him. "I hear a TV across the street. Sometimes, if you're really careful not to get caught, you can peer into a house's window and watch the TV, then run away really quickly. It's great fun!" Kojau blinked after him as he gleefully raced across the street and up to one of the many houses. From there, he turned toward her and grinned, though he said nothing, probably to avoid alerting the humans in the house.

Kojau shook her head in exasperation, though she did feel a bit better than before. Kiete had a way of cheering her up. She supposed it wouldn't hurt to go 'watch TV,' so she started across the moonlit street, running lightly forward until she stood next to her young friend.

"See, see…!" The umbreon reared up placed his paws against the window, just barely peeking over, golden eyes sparkling. Feeling misgivings about the whole thing, Kojau peered very carefully over as well.

She found herself looking into a large, cozy, well lit room, illuminated warmly. There was a human there, sitting in a chair, the chair's back turned toward them. A TV was in front of him, and Kojau stared in amazement at the images flickering across the screen, completely forgetting to listen to the news reporter's words for a moment.

"…In other news, the war going on overseas has leaked over to our country, though they had promised to keep their battles over on their side. It seems a shipment of odd, genetically modified pokemon and others of the like have somehow gotten overseas and are here. The people responsible have sent over several qualified trainers to take care of this mess, but we can only hope nothing bad will come if it all. If you see any pokemon like this, be sure to alert your local authorities…"

Kojau wasn't listening. Her attention had become completely riveted on the picture on the screen. It was a 3-D image of an absol, the sleek white fur and claws unmistakable. But there was something odd about it. There seemed to be some sort of machinery strapped onto it, going into its body and…

Kojau found her mouth gaping as a sudden bright light took over her vision. Her jaws opened and spread apart in a silent howl as the odd tingle going from her head to her backbone broke its imaginary bonds, immersing her body in a horrible feeling of power and being unable to control it. _It…twisted…ah…NOOO!_

"Kojau!" Kiete's voice, sounding panicked, came to her ears as she reeled backward, feeling as though the bright light and unbearable sensation was spreading through her whole being, consuming her. _Shadows…cries of pain, oh let it not be them, please not them…_

She was not even conscious of hitting the ground as her head seemed to explode, though it wasn't pain…it was just the light, the bright, raw current of light traveling through her whole being. It was a part of her, but it was going to consume her, and then there would be nothing more of herself, only a shell. And the shadows, oh, the shadows would have her then…

Kiete was nudging her, trying to awaken her, calling to her. But his voice was calling across a void of endless space, and she was drawing away from him, falling, twisting through time and light to fall into darkness. Her sight was completely taken up by the blinding light now, and she closed her eyes when it threatened to do away with her vision. There was a roaring in her ears, and she convulsed helplessly on the sidewalk as it reached an unbearable level, muting out any other sound. She was fading, dwindling away to nothing as the current flowing through her body pushed her soul and being further and further away from herself…she could not support it…

Kiete worried about her, whimpering to himself. She had seemed fine before, but then suddenly seemed to go insane, eyes gaining an odd, fervent light, fur standing on end like a jolteon's when it was about to attack. She had staggered and swayed on her feet for a few moments, seeming unable to utter any noise, eyes staring blindly right through him. Now she was convulsing on the sidewalk, frothing at the mouth and seeming for all the world not herself anymore.

Kiete didn't know what to do. He could see how his friend was pained, see how her face contorted into a frozen expression of silent agony. He could almost feel her life force dwindling away under the pressure of something that she couldn't control. Sobbing, the umbreon fell upon her in a last desperate move and pressed his head to hers, trying to hold her down. There was a sudden flash in his consciousness, and he sensed an odd struggle. Then it was gone, and the mightyena gave one last heave and lay deathly still.

Kojau had almost faded all the way. She had been mere inches from leaving her body forever when she had felt another light pouring into her mind, soothing away the raw power coursing through her in a millisecond before winking out as quickly as it had come. There was still a void there, but she could tell by her trembling breathing that she was still of her body, though just barely. And, right before the darkness claimed her, she came to the conclusion that there was something very, very wrong…

* * *

Thank you for reviewing, everyone! Negrek, I saw that whole 'mates/siblings'mistake after I submitted my chapter...AH! I though, 'Uh-oh, Negrek's gonna catch that for sure...' Oh, the horror...XD Anyway, I don't think there are too many mistakes in this chapter, but if you find another one like that, don't hesitate to mention it. (Oh, and by the way, Kojau's name is pronounced Ko-jow, as in ow, with a long o, as in cobra. Kiete's in either pronounced Kie-et-ae with a short e, or Kie-tae, however you prefer. Just decided to put this because I tend to make up names that are very hard to figure out. o.0) 


	7. Burn

Chapter Seven-Burn

Crosius was wasting away. Deka could see it as the days went past. She wondered if it had something to do with the shots the humans had given him, but her common sense told her it was because he wasn't eating. Crosius steadfastly refused to eat any of the food she took from her food giver, calling it 'mind numbing cardboard,' or something of the sort. He drank very limited water, but he never seemed dehydrated. She supposed he should probably have been dead by now, but that was such a horrible thought that the ninetales preferred not to think about it for longer than she had to.

She looked at the boney houndoom now. He was staring out the window at the back of the room, looking outside with that distant expression that meant she would not be able to strike up any kind of conversation with him for a long period of time. The dark canine was very quiet and serious most of the time. He didn't talk too much, and seemed to become lost in his thoughts quite often. He had been very pensive since he had been let out of his cage, and it had only seemed to deepen when the humans put an odd contraption around his neck, much like the one around her head.

They had darted him from some hidden place in the ceiling of the room the day after he had been let out of his cage. He had jumped a bit when the dart had hit him, but had adopted a knowing and accepting expression soon afterward, as if he knew he could do nothing about it and didn't want to waste his energy trying. He had fallen into a very deep sleep that worried Deka a short time later, and the humans had taken him away and had returned him with the odd collar on. He hadn't flamed anymore since. Since then, whenever Marci appeared to take Deka outside, she carried a small remote, clicking a button on it upon entering the room. This button seemed to somehow correspond with Crosius's collar and make him very weak until she had taken Deka out. The houndoom never made any move or even said anything about it, but Deka could see something dangerous and subtle smoldering in his eyes whenever he was weakened by the collar, something that she hoped would never reveal itself. But the houndoom was rather mild the rest of the time, though his personality was infuriating to Deka.

The ninetales had never met anyone quite like Crosius. He had come from outside, that much she knew, and once in a while he would tell her short little stories about life with his pack, where he had been leader. She savored these tales like food for the soul, as they seemed to speak to some hidden place in her she hadn't known she had. It frustrated her that Crosius wouldn't tell her much, though, and the tales were very infrequent. He had been here a long time, and most of the time he treated Deka with a sort of patient but condescending attitude, and he wasn't fond of speaking more than he had to. Perhaps that was why his words seemed to carry so much gravity when he did.

She sighed to herself as she watched him now, long muzzle outlined against the window, the light of the setting sun silhouetting him perfectly. His curving horns gleamed in that light, showing him to be healthy despite his starved condition. He never acted as if he needed food, though, and had stopped growing skinnier after a few weeks. He only gave Deka a vague sort of answer when she asked him about this, however. "I'll be fine, worry about yourself."

Why on earth was she supposed to worry about herself? She was certainly taking care of herself better than he was, eating good meals every day. Crosius seemed to think she should be worried about the future, though. He had told her just the other day, after a while of constant prodding, that he sensed something bad or at least vaguely bad about to happen, and it was concentrated mainly on her.

Deka was a bit skeptical of his 'predicting the future,' though she did trust in his judgment. He hadn't told her anymore after that, no matter how much she prodded. It annoyed her to no end that he could just close his eyes and seem to deafen himself to her incessant questions, never becoming irritated with her. In fact, he seemed to feel a bit sorry for her, and she suspected this stemmed from her apparent inability to produce fire. She had, of course, tried questioning him on this, but he hadn't given her any answers.

Watching him, Deka found herself full of questions she wanted to ask. She wished he wouldn't be so secretive with her, that he would be more open and less serious. She wondered if the serious attitude just came with dark types, but she really hadn't met enough to truly know for sure.

Thinking to herself, she decided that maybe she ought to try again. Perhaps if she was a little less prodding, she could get some clear answers out of him to her numerous questions. It wouldn't hurt to try, she thought sourly, as he simply did not react to those questions he deemed prudent not to answer. She settled on striking up a light conversation, and letting it go from there. Perhaps she could bring him out of his 'window-trance.'

"So…Crosius." She got a small amount of satisfaction as he nodded a bit, head barely moving, gaze still turned to the window. "I wonder what will happen today? I have a good feeling about this day, you know, like something interesting will happen."

She grinned happily as he actually turned in her general direction, looking at her coolly. "You always have a good feeling about the day, ninetales." His voice carried a small amount of exasperation in it. "Every day, it's, "'This is such a wonderful day,' or, "'Oh, isn't this a beautiful day,' or, "'I bet my food will be super good today.'" He heaved a small sigh. "You are just so naïve."

Deka thought about his words for a moment. At least he was actually talking to her, and seemed willing to go on, his attention taken away momentarily from that window. She would make full use of this opportunity. "Well, we're alive, aren't we? Every day is a good one if you are alive, because life is what you think of it."

Crosius blinking slowly back at her, tail twitching ever so slightly. "Believe me, every day is _not _a good day for every pokemon." A slight smirk suddenly spread across his face. "Only the insane or mentally unstable pokemon believe that every day is a good day."

Deka frowned. "But…chanseys and blisseys, it's rumored that they are always happy, right?" She congratulated herself mentally on her cleverness, feeling very smart indeed.

As usual, Crosius deflated her with no apparent effort on his part. "Yes, but chanseys are simple and blisseys are simpler." He yawned. "They have a mind-set like that, and as far as I'm concerned they are the epitome of mentally fixated pokemon with only one direction for their emotions. Thus, I can conclude that that would amount to being mentally unstable, at least in part, though this is a case of being naturally mentally unstable."

"Um. Oh." Deka frowned to herself, uncomfortably aware that he was waiting for her to make some sort of comeback, and would turn again to the window should she not. "I…well, I suppose you're right. But I do have a good feeling that something is going to happen."

Crosius looked at her lazily. "So you do. And so do I. But whether it's good or not, I cannot say." He continued to give her his attention, or at least in part, and she felt she had made some progress.

"Well, will you tell me some more about your life outside this place, like you do sometimes?" She decided now would be the perfect time to try to get something out of him, for he seemed to be in an unusually talkative mood. Well, unusually talkative for Crosius, that is.

He heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "Deka, I really do not wish to talk about it at the moment. Not, if you'll excuse me…" And he had turned back to the window, just like that.

Deka felt like howling in frustration. She had been so close! "Well…you could at least tell me what you're thinking about so intently over there." Her voice sounded a bit reproachful.

Crosius was quiet for a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell Deka anything. When he spoke, his voice was so quiet that Deka could barely hear it from her position on the other side of the room. "Actually, I was mentally practicing the olden language, the language that used to be universal to all pokemon. It is largely forgotten, and as we cannot pronounce it in anything but our own tongues, there really is no use for it. But…it ought to be kept alive, and I suspect that no pokemon have as thorough a knowledge of it as my pack and I. It must be practiced, though, meditated on, or else it will fade away from the mind like a curse being lifted. It is not really meant to be remembered, I think."

Deka cocked an ear in interest, thinking on his words. This was something new and interesting, and Crosius actually seemed vaguely willing to talk about it. "Can…can you tell me a few words in this language?" She asked, hardly daring to hope.

"Ye-essss…." Crosius replied haltingly and slowly, as if he was thinking on his answer as he said the word. "Yes, that would be a good way for me to practice the language as well, and I can see no harm in your learning a few words. What word do you want to hear translated?"

Feeling elated, Deka thought for a moment. "Hmmm…what about 'Starlight?"

"Well, 'starlight' is usually thought of as sacred in the olden tongue." Crosius had turned back to her now, smiling slightly. "Funny you would think of that, as it is rather a prominent word in that language. I suppose 'kiet' would mean starlight, with ki meaning star. The way it is used in the olden tongue is almost always as 'sacred starlight,' which would translate out to the word 'kiete.'"

"Kiete…" Deka let the word slide smoothly off her tongue, feeling its foreignness. "A beautiful word." She paused a moment. "It must be a beautiful language, no?"

Crosius sighed. "It is. It is. Or, it was." He looked almost sad for a moment. "It is really a shame that not many other pokemon know of it. It was almost wiped off the face of the earth so long ago…"

Deka thought about asking for the story of how the language had been wiped out in the first place, but decided that would be pushing her luck. If Crosius didn't tell her right away when he mentioned it, it was likely he would not tell her if asked. She smirked to herself at the thought, thinking on how she had gotten to know the houndoom well enough to sense this.

"Come here." The words snapped the ninetales out of her thoughts, and she turned and stared at Crosius. He motioned with his head, nodding to her.

Feeling confused, Deka got to her paws and stretched luxuriously, fluffing up her nine tails until they plumed out like feathers. Feeling satisfied as she gave herself a last little shake, she strode forward to the window and Crosius, looking at the houndoom questioningly as she got there.

He was silent for a moment, then motioned out the window with his nose. "Look," he said.

Deka did. She saw the gardens stretching long and beautiful below them before stopping at another large building across from them. She saw the walls at the edges of the gardens blocking any escape. She saw the tops of tall buildings beyond that, obscuring anything that might be behind them. And she saw the sunset off in the distance, the sky and clouds painted in hues of red and purple and silver around the golden disk that hung in the sky there. Nothing of importance, not really. The ninetales looked at the houndoom in confusion. What did he expect her to see out there?

Crosius looked into her eyes and saw that she did not understand. He frowned a bit, a far away glint to his eyes. "All you see is what is before you." He said slowly, then, before Deka could say a thing, "And do you see the sunset?"

Deka cocked her head. "Yes. Yes, of course I see the sunset." She paused. "Everyone can, Crosius, except those who are inside or are facing away!" She wondered just what sort of point he was trying to make.

"Yes. Everyone can see it." Crosius spoke those words more to himself than anyone else. He was silent for a long time after that, and Deka was beginning to think he was in another of those silent 'moods' of his when he spoke once more. "Deka. The sunset you see out there is the only real thing here, the only definite thing. All else is an illusion created by humans for humans. You must remember that you cannot stay here…and that the sky before you is the only thing that is not a false image…the sky is _truth_, will always be truth. Look to it when all else fails you…"

Deka wrinkled up her muzzle at him. "You say the oddest things, Crosius! This is all I know, and all I have ever known. I have no reason to fear the humans. This is my home, and as far as I'm concerned, the sunset and the yonder are the things that aren't definite, not the other way around!"

Crosius only shook his head slowly, smiling bitterly. "This is not the place for you, Deka." He turned his gaze to her and his eyes held hers in an iron grip. "You stay here too much longer and you'll be a goner. These humans never keep anything for a period of time without wanting something from it. And if this place is any example…" He actually shuddered a bit, surprising Deka to no end.

The ninetales opened her mouth…and found she had nothing to say. She instead contented herself with tracing patterns in the dust on a part of the window that was less used, trying to make sense of what Crosius had just told her.

"_Zhyhail_..." The word jerked Deka's attention back to Crosius, and she stared at him oddly. He was still gazing out the window, but there was something cold and hard blazing in his eyes. His gaze was riveted on the sunset, and Deka saw the sky around it was now painted in brilliant shades of red, like fire. She looked askance at Crosius.

The houndoom didn't return her look. His eyes remained fixed on that sunset as he spoke again. "Zhyhail. It means burn…"

He said nothing more, and Deka eventually retreated to the back of the room again, thinking on the events of the day. She just could not figure Crosius out sometimes, she thought after stewing over the houndoom for a while. She decided she shouldn't worry about his words too much, as they weren't definite. And besides, the humans had never done anything bad to her. What cause would they have to start now?

* * *

Marci came for Deka shortly after her little talk with Crosius, which surprised her. The human female never came at night. She smiled at Deka as she stepped in the door, clicking the button to make the houndoom unable to harm her right away, though he had not even looked at her.

Deka stared in surprise as the human came to her and started to wind the old scarf around her neck. That meant she was taking Deka out of the room for some reason or other. Surprised, the ninetales began to speak to her in human speak, not thinking. "Marci. What…?"

"Shhhh…" The red haired woman cut her off gently. "No speaking in human, remember? And we're going to do a little something with you that I think you shall enjoy." The gentle, fond smile on her face immediately made Deka feel at ease, and she followed the human out of the room and into the hall, never once turning back to look at Crosius until the door was closing. By then, it was too late.

Marci led her off down the hall, toward the one that went out to the gardens. Deka was just beginning to wonder if they were going to take a moonlit stroll when the two turned off into a hall that Deka had never been to before. It was wider than the rest, and had one door at the end. The pokemon peered in curiously as Marci swung this door open and led her inside.

There was a room there, and it was rather like the one Deka had been in when she had learned to speak human. There was a lot of high-tech looking machinery there, and the walls were all shiny and metallic looking, as if they needed to be clean at all costs. There was also a little man there, a balding fellow wearing a white coat who shifted nervously and smelled of chemicals.

Deka smiled at him as she was led into the room. Marci released her scarf after the heavy door swung shut mechanically, walking straight over to talk to the man. Deka wandered off on her own as the two babbled away at each other. She didn't make any effort to listen to what they were saying, instead investigating the many machines there, though she was careful not to mess with any. She found herself becoming excited about what was going to happen. Good things always seemed to happen to her in labs, and, as she had told Crosius earlier, she had no reason to fear these humans. She trusted all humans indefinitely.

"Deka!" Marci's voice came drifting to her above the steady hum of one of the machines she was investigating, and she turned obediently and made her way back to the two, standing my Marci's side.

The woman fondled her ears as she spoke in sharp, clipped tones to the man. Deka picked up on the tail end of what she was saying. "…not dangerous, never hurt anyone, we can attempt it today." Her eyes became cold and hard suddenly, and the man flinched under her gaze. "I would advise you to get the machine ready, before I start to get…irritated." She put a world of meaning into that last word.

The man quailed under that gaze. "Yes…yes, Marci, of course, Marci…" He stammered, rushing over to a large machine nearby that Deka hadn't seen yet and adjusting it.

The ninetales peered closely at it, curious. It appeared to have a spot for a small pokemon to stand, with several cords and wires sticking out of it. There was a large, flat, elevated place up in front of it, and a screen at the end of that place. The man rushed around it, adjusting a few things on it. He finally flicked a large switch and stood back, cowering away from Marci as she led Deka over to the machine.

The woman stooped and picked the ninetales up off the ground, much to Deka's surprise. She gasped a bit as the woman lifted her apparently effortlessly over the large obstructions on each side of the standing place and set her into it. It had a pen like quality to it, with all sides blocked off so the pokemon inside couldn't get out.

Deka looked about herself, gaze coming to rest on the large screen in front of her. The balding man was leaning over her, and his hands were on the collar thing around her head. She heard a snap, and then the man walked over toward the screen, the end of a wire in his hand. Deka realized the wire was connecting to the thing on her head, and she watched as the man clipped the other end into the large screen. He held a small remote like machine in one hand, much like the one used to activate the collar Crosius wore, and he clutched it protectively, as if it meant the difference between life and death.

"Well…carry on." Marci waved impatiently at the man as he faltered, seeming uncomfortable. Flinching, he finally pressed a single button on the remote.

Deka yelped, starting. That feeling…! Her fur bristled all over her body, standing up in a ridge down her spine. There was some new energy there, something concentrating in her head…something so powerful, so mysterious and new to her… Cautiously, she tried to tap into it, and found, both to her relief and consternation, that she could only access this type of odd energy very limitedly. She puzzled over it, shivering all over as she felt its alien touch in her head.

"Good Deka…" Marci gave her a small pat on her head, trying unsuccessfully to smooth down some of her fur that stood on end. The ninetales was tensed up in every muscle, every pore of her body, as though preparing to fight something to the death.

The man with the remote pressed another button before Marci could order him to once more, and the screen before Deka suddenly flashed into life, images of bags moving across it like a simple computer game. The ninetales forced herself to stop thinking about the new power for just a moment, watching the screen in fascination.

"Now, Deka…" Marci spoke quietly and soothingly to her. "I know this is new for you, but you must be brave. All I want you to do is concentrate that power on one of those bags and…"

One of the bags on the screen burst in a cartoon-ish way with the smallest whisper of thought from Deka. The ninetales stared, wondering if that had been her or…

More praise from Marci gave her no doubt that it _had _been she who had done it. After praising her, the red haired woman stepped back and ordered her to continue on with the rest of the bags that went across the screen.

Very happy with the lavish praise, Deka was more than willing to do so. In time, she found she could perfect this skill, blowing up the bags at the same time they went across the screen, faster and faster, dead accurate every time.

When it was finally time to go back, Deka was almost sorry as the man took the chord from the collar on her head and pressed a button on the remote. The power that had been there so freely before winked out quite as suddenly as it had come, leaving Deka feeling deflated and longing and not unlike a child who had been allowed to taste candy once and been denied more.

* * *

"Oh, Crosius, it was unlike anything I had ever felt in my entire life!" Deka gushed, prancing about in front of the houndoom. "It was such a new energy, so foreign, and yet it felt so right, so _me, _and I had it right then…"

Crosius sighed mentally. The ninetales had returned last night full of stories of her new 'power,' which he suspected was some form of psychic power. He hadn't told her this yet, however, as she hadn't given him enough of a break and seemed perfectly happy to babble on about it without his offering anything to the rather one-sided conversation. She had promptly taken up on talking about it again this morning, and now he was listening to her with a half ear.

"Well, what do you think about it, Crosius?" Deka finally paused, looking at him intently, eyes glittering with a young, child-like wonder.

Crosius gave her a long, slow look. "I don't like it, Deka." He could sense she was about to burst out with some contradiction to this statement by the indignant look in her eyes, and he stopped that one before it started with a look full of menace. Satisfied with the small amount of respect he seemed to have inspired, the houndoom strove doggedly on, though he didn't think he would be able to convince her of his point of view; her enthusiasm and trust in humans were too great. "That woman Marci…she's a snake, Deka. There's something about her lurking not too far from that gentle, calm surface, something that it just evil…I wouldn't trust her."

He knew right away that had struck a nerve. Deka looked shocked for a full second…then that shock gradually grew into anger, then outrage as she processed his words. Seeming unable to articulate her rage, she stuttered for a minute, during which Crosius watched her impassively. Finally, though, she exploded.

"You!" The ninetales bristled up, though she didn't look one bit intimidating, at least not to him. "You are always so full of contradictions, so full of distrust. Can't you ever be happy for me? Can't you trust my judgment? You are always so distant…I don't know why you can't ever treat me as a friend and equal!" She paused for a moment, working herself into an even greater anger and bristling even more, tails sticking straight up in her rage. "And now you insult Marci! Marci, who has been my friend and protector ever since I was born! Marci, who I grew up with!" Her voice grew shrill with her outrage, and Crosius could almost feel his horns vibrating. "I should think that I would be able to judge Marci much better than you _ever _could! She's certainly being a better friend than you _ever were!_" She gave him one last wrathful look, practically shuddering with anger, before moving away from the window and to the back of the room, throwing herself down in a corner and sulking. He let her go.

* * *

Crosius peered out the window, regarding the buildings with a general air of disgust. He had to get out of here, and soon. He was getting a bad feeling about the future, a feeling that built up like rain clouds over his head.

Deka had been taken regularly to the lab for the past few weeks, every evening, having her power put to the test with harder and harder challenges on the screen. So far, she had aced every one, her 'new power' never giving out on her. Crosius was pretty sure it had probably always been there, but the collar on her head had just kept her from ever really knowing it was dormant there.

He and she had made up, more or less, but neither had talked about Deka's new power since. She had become a bit more distant and less talkative, a fact that actually relieved Crosius, who had never been the biggest fan of conversation or nosy ninetales anyway. Still, it bothered him that he could not help her. The only way he could ever help her was if he could get her to see the true evil of the place around her.

His bad premonition deepened as the evening set in, and soon, restless, he took to pacing from one side of the room to the other. The houndoom growled under his breath as he paced, frustrated at not being able to figure out just what it was that he was so worried about.

Deka watched him as he strode back and forth, feeling more than a bit unsettled about it. Crosius was obviously very worried about something, and he was usually so calm…this was the most agitated she had ever seen him, apart from when he had first arrived. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but then she remembered their fight a few weeks ago and kept her silence, not wishing to somehow create a deeper rift between them.

It was nearing the time the Marci usually took Deka out for her much-anticipated tests. She was becoming more and more used to the feeling of that power, her own power. She had never had her own special power like pokemon other than normal types were supposed to. She reveled in it…but she wanted more. She was never allowed to use her full power, she knew that, and she was becoming more and more frustrated that the humans could just clicked it off like that at the end of the sessions and not let her keep it. Didn't they trust her?

Crosius's tail lashed back and forth like a long black whip as he passed in front of her once more and turned again. She was beginning to catch onto some of his worry, and longed to say something, to ask him what was wrong.

The handle of the door leading into the room started turning just as Crosius came to her and the end of the room again. The houndoom stopped, and the door swung open, time seeming to slow down. Crosius's eyes flashed a fierce shade of crimson as Marci entered the room, and the woman's own eyes opened wide in surprise as she saw the houndoom standing right in front of her. Her reaction was delayed, and she did not press the button on the remote promptly as she usually did.

Deka only stared as Crosius leaped at Marci, powerful jaws reaching for the hand that held the remote, ready to snap the fragile wrist bones, ready to wound and ravage and maim.

Marci barely got out of the way in time. Her quick reflexes saved her, and she side-stepped. Crosius skidded to a stop half in the door and half out, wheeling about once more. Deka actually saw a flicker of fear in the woman's eyes, something she had never seen there before. Then, she pressed a button on the remote, and Crosius stopped short, trembling in the intense pain that suddenly coursed through his body from the hated collar, setting every nerve on fire. Anger replaced the fear then, a cold, hard, _sadistic _anger that made the ninetales tremble.

Deka took one step forward, then halted, watching as Crosius jerked in pain, shuddering as Marci savagely held the button on the remote. The dark type's collar made several small snapping noises as it pressed him to its full power, but he suffered in silence, eyes focused stonily on the red haired human. It seemed there was a battle of wills going on between the two, and Deka could only watch in horror as Crosius stumbled forward. His eyes as he looked at her held a vague hope, and he mouthed the word 'run', nearly falling, jaw set in extreme pain. The door was unblocked, but Deka could not bring herself to flee.

Marci stepped over to Crosius then, drawing back her foot. He could do nothing as her hard boot pounded into the side of his head and his ribs, over and over, could no nothing as she sneered coldly at him, as if punishing him for making her fear.

And Deka, cowering in a corner, hated herself at that moment, despised herself for not doing anything. But her loyalty to Marci held strong, and she only looked on as Crosius slowly fell to the ground, the combined force of the beating and his collar proving too much at last. In all that time, he had never uttered any sound, never even whimpered. And finally, he lay prostrate on the floor, eyes shut, sides moving slowly up and down, one of his proud, shiny rib markings chipped from the hard side of Marci's boot.

The woman stepped back to regard her work, the look in her eyes one that Deka had never seen before on anything, human or pokemon. She delivered one last blow to his head with her boot that made his horns hum softly on the still air, then turned from him and made for Deka, who cowered away from her in horror.

A snarl still in her expression, Marci lunged for Deka and grabbed her roughly about the neck, twining the scarf around her throat so tightly it nearly choked her. The ninetales gasped for breath as the woman dragged her from the room, kicking the still form of the houndoom contemptuously back in and shutting the door behind them, barely missing closing one of Deka's tails in it.

She was practically dragged down the hall toward the lab, the pressure of the scarf knotted around her throat so tight that her front paws were nearly in the air half the time, her hind paws scrabbling madly to keep up. She was just thinking how she could not go on much longer with this sort of treatment when they arrived at the lab. Marci tugged her inside and roughly smashed her into the pen-like place in front of the screen.

The small man who had always been there looked askance at the red haired girl as she began to adjust the machine herself. She said nothing to him, however.

Deka blinked to herself, trying to keep her eyes from watering. Her throat felt tight and constricted, and she realized the scarf was still wound around her neck like some serpent trying to strangle its prey.

Marci and the man were talking now, Marci's voice low and dangerous and the man's voice jittery and high, like an omega before his alpha. They seemed to be arguing about something, and Marci abruptly turned and stormed off to a small closet like room, her parting words sounding something like, "…test her loyalty."

The man looked at Deka with something like pity in his eyes as Marci turned her attention to the closet, clanging around inside of it. He did not attach the cord to Deka's headpiece as she would have thought we would, and the screen was not turned on. The look of pity in his eyes soon became one of worry as he heard the ninetale's rasping breath. He very gingerly moved one hand toward the scarf wound too tightly about her neck, as though planning to loosen it…

"Leave it." The man abruptly jerked his hand back, cowering backward as Marci came returned, holding a large cage in her hands. "She'll manage." She clanged the cage down on the long flat place in front of the screen, lifting a long black blanket off the top to reveal a little brown pokemon inside, a sentret by the looks of it.

The squirrel like pokemon looked about itself, disoriented. It stared around the foreign room, beady black eyes glistening in fear. It smelled its natural predator and the two humans. It smelled the chemicals and heard the soft whirring of the machines, which sounded monstrous to its ears. It tilted its head back and let out one shrill cry, then started whimpering to itself in terror. Marci took no notice of it, but the man seemed disturbed.

"Now. Activate her." The man, sweat on his forehead standing out in the bright light of the room, clicked the button. Deka felt the customary, familiar surge of power, but she did not revel in it. Rather, she looked in confusion at the little, defenseless, terrified pokemon in front of her, forgetting about her tight scarf in her feelings of sympathy toward it.

Marci was suddenly beside her, one hand on her head, fingers twining themselves in the long plume of white fur there. "You know what you did to the bags on the screen, right?" The words were like a snake hissing, and Deka shuddered. She would have flinched away, but the hand balled itself in the fur on her head and smarted there. The ninetales found herself nodding, feeling hot and frightened. Marci turned her head to look at the little caged pokemon in front of her. "All you need to do is do what you did to those bags to that pokemon." Her hand tightened painfully in the ninetale's fur, seeming as if she would tug it from Deka's head given any provocation at all.

The fox like pokemon took a few moments to process her words. Then, horror flooded into her mind, making her feel thick and cold. Marci…Marci, this human she had known all her life, this gentle creature, had suddenly turned into a predator, a predator that reveled in other's fear, cold and hard and calculating. She did not know this human anymore. Deka shuddered and did nothing.

The hand twisted her fur painfully. "If you love me, Deka…" The words were like poison, and she wished she did not have to hear them. "If you are loyal to me, you will do this thing."

Invisible alarms went off in Deka's mind, and she tried to flinch away from Marci, but that hand made it impossible. The fiery haired woman's touch was suddenly like something menacing and unclean on her, blemishing her soul.

"Press her." Marci's voice was cold, like diamonds glittering in the sun. Deka turned pleading eyes on the man with the remote, yelping suddenly as Marci gave her head a vicious yank to get it in the same place it had been earlier.

"But…" The little man backed up a few steps. "That's not wise, Marci, you know that. She could be dangerous…and are you sure it's necessary?"

Marci gave him a look so full of menace that he looked as though he had been stricken a physical blow. He stepped back an involuntary pace, turning his head down to the remote and pressing a button on it.

Deka nearly stumbled down as the power that was in her mind sprang forward as if it had a will of its own. Only Marci's cruel hand kept her from falling, and she ground her fangs and shut her eyes tightly as the power pounded on the inside of her head. To her horror, it found its focus on the sentret, and became even more excited, lashing out, trying to escape its bounds. Deka grimly did all she could to keep it in. With one last desperate tug, she felt a snap, and the man almost dropped the remote as it crackled in his hands.

"She…she overrode it." He looked bemusedly at the remote, then Deka and Marci, then the remote again. For a moment, all was silent except the sentret's occasional whimpering and the whirring of the machines. Then, the man spoke up once more, timidly. "I think we ought to call it off, Marci, is this really necessary?"

Marci was silent for a time, and Deka felt hope stir in her chest. Perhaps the woman was rethinking her plans?

"No." A chill ran down the fox's spine as the word left Marci's lips, cold as ice. "No." Her hand tightened, and Deka ground her teeth to keep from yelping again. "You will set free her powers. _All _of her powers. _Then _you will press her, once more."

The man looked at Marci as if she was insane. "B-b-but, lady, that is very dangerous, you don't know what you're messing with, you can't play with fire and not expect to be burned…" He gibbered idiotically in the general vein for a while, pausing and looking at Marci as if for understanding.

The woman was calm and cold as before. "Are you questioning my authority? For I outrank you. And, like a bug, you can be easily squashed. Now. Will you carry out my request, of will I have to see to the removal of a disobedient underling myself?" Deka actually found it somewhere in her tortured heart to feel sorry for the man at that moment.

"Yes, or course, Marci dear." His voice sounded beaten. He fiddled with the remote for a moment, as trying to prolong the moment before the storm. Then, he pressed a button on it swiftly and backed away, a small flicker of guilt in his eyes before he turned them away from the ninetales and the woman.

Deka blinked, thinking for a moment that nothing had changed. Then, the collar gave a small sparking noise, and there were two twinges in her head, She felt an odd tugging feeling in her brain…and her world was thrown completely into chaos. It was as if the earth inverted under her paws and she fell off, such was the strength of that feeling. The shred of power in her mind was suddenly torn open, and the sheer intensity of it trembled up and down her body and cast everything in her vision into a purple haze. Deka found it was all she could to control it and keep it balanced, and even then anything could trigger that awful, destructive power, and who knew what it would do once unleashed? She thought dryly of how she had wanted full power earlier. Now she understood why the humans hadn't allowed her full reign of it…

Marci smiled savagely as she felt the ninetales under her hand go rigid and start trembling. She herself could almost feel the power coursing through the pokemon's veins, and it seemed to transmit itself to her and make her feel unstoppable. She bent in close to the pokemon's ear. "This is you last chance, Deka." Her free hand motioned to the caged sentret. "Kill it."

Deka, who was having a hard enough time as it was, didn't hear most of her words and did nothing.

Marci turned calmly back to the man. Fear danced in his eyes as she spoke. "Press her."

Deka could practically smell the man's fear as he backed away as far as he could, back to the wall. His finger went toward the button as is in slow motion. Even Marci felt the gravity in the air, and her hand subconsciously loosened a bit on Deka's head plume.

A ninetales was not supposed to scream. A scream was a noise reserved solely for humans, or so it was understood. Perhaps that was why Marci let go of Deka altogether as she threw back her head and gave voice to a sharp wail of despair and pain, haunting, like the sound a ghost makes on a horror movie. Only, it was a pokemon who made it now, not a ghost. The button had been pressed, and the chaos had begun.

Deka's mind was in turmoil. The sheer raw psychic power inside her seemed to be blowing her apart, or at least her consciousness. She could not have focused it on the sentret if she would have tried, but she was being pressed to focus it on something, and she could not. It blew up to a tornado frenzy in her mind, and, barely escaping being crushed, the true, innocent Deka fled to the back of her own mind, leaving only instinct to prevail.

Marci and the man both leaped back as the machines around Deka started sparking. The backlash as they exploded altogether sent them both slamming into the walls behind them. The sentret's cage, miraculously, was not damaged, for it could be seen sitting perfectly fine in a corner, though the pokemon inside screeched in its fear.

Fire burned sullenly around the wrecked machinery, and thick, foul smelling smoke concealed all but a silhouette. And then, as Marci opened her eyes, she saw two pinpricks through the smoke, two red pinpricks that struck fear into her soul. The dancing flames around the shadow suddenly blew away on their own accord, and the sight there would have been enough to make even the most battle hardened veteran cower.

The pokemon standing there was a ninetales, yes, but it was not Deka. This was a demon that stood there, encased in a fox like body. She glowed with a faint white light, and her fur blew around her as if in an invisible wind. A shower of sparks falling toward her somehow fell around her, and the fires burning on either side of her never touched her.

But the most terrifying thing about her was her eyes. It was said that eyes were windows to the soul, and as Marci stared into Deka's she saw something that made her want to hide away. This thing before her was every bit the vengeful ninetales pictured in horror stories and more. This was a thing of primordial beauty, of wild savagery and spirit. This was true terror unleashed, and Marci had been the one to unleash it.

Deka was not Deka anymore, but she was certainly something. She did not think, but as she felt that annoying pressing in the back of her mind she acted. She could feel it slowly breaking down her defenses, and this sort of strain on her power would leave her weak and defenseless. Slowly turning around, her eyes fixed on the small balding man cowering in a corner. In his fear, he had forgotten to let up on the button.

Marci saw this, and when she shouted out a warning her voice was like that of a terrified child, though it still carried the authority co characteristic of Marci. "Let up on the button, man, it'll mean the death of you!" Authority seemed pretty ridiculous in a situation like this.

The wild thing's blood red eyes concentrated on the man, seeming to trap him. She silently willed the air around him to a level of her liking, moving closer and closer to him. He hadn't stopped pressing that button yet, and her eyes flashed, enraged, wrath boiling over…

The man blinked once as he felt the strangest sensation around him. Something crackled oddly in the air, and he stared, mouth gaping in his terror as the creature before him's eyes blazed suddenly, glowing in her face. He didn't even have time to scream as the white hot fire of psychic intensity roared up around him, flames licking the ceiling and moving rapidly across the floor. He was burned to ashes within seconds, his shadow through the fire crumbling to the ground.

The ninetales glowed with pure white hot energy, fur undulating along with the psychic fire that still burned before her. That pressing on her power had gone, at last. The man went from her mind as quickly as he had been there, for she had felt his spirit leave the building and was satisfied that he was disposed of.

Marci, over in a the corner, moved slowly toward the door. She loathed the fear boiling up in her chest, and she even more loathed how that thing she had raised all its life had turned into something else. It was as if her own creation had turned against her.

The ninetales's vision misted over as she regarded the pure, twisting white flames that danced wildly in front of her, unnatural in their movements and intensity. She was like some animal totem of legend standing before her pyre, sacrificing something to the gods of myth.

But such a power as was coursing through her body could not hold on forever, and she slowly felt herself collapsing to the ground, stretching out on her stomach before the fire that held her blazing red eyes with its wild movements. And, right before the darkness took her, she was able to remember a single word, something she had hard somewhere before, seconds or perhaps ages ago…

Zhyhail.

_Burn…_

_

* * *

_

(Whoo, that had to be the longest chapter I have ever written. Took a few tries to get in, too, as I'm not used to this new format... Negrek, thanks for the review, and I am the QUEEN of weird names. For example, can anyone figure out how to pronounce 'Caive?' Anyone who does successfully gets a cookie. To Act...thanks for your review. Without you, this story may never have been started, for it popped into my mind on a whim and I may never have written the first chapter without your offer to beta it.)


	8. Revelations

Chapter Eight-Revelations

_Long white halls, going on forever, never ceasing…pokemon trapped, pokemon suffering, pokemon killed. Never pokemon escaped, though, never… _

"_Some simply do not wish to escape, Kojau." Dark eyes blinking slowly at her, wisdom there, but hopelessness as well. "Some are bound here."_

_She was not bound here, though, she _would _escape, would surprise them all, she would…but then there were the halls again, the places, all twisted into one, couldn't escape, pain, light, burning, gone forever only to return like a bird coming back to its nest, only different, changed, not…_

"Kojau! Kojau, please get up…please…"

_That voice…so like she felt, so like she had been, tight with worry, not understanding…but she was in darkness, unreachable. Floating…or perhaps she was falling? Ah, well, falling was good as long as she wasn't hitting anything. She hadn't known she had such depth to her mind, so much space to fall through. But perhaps this wasn't her mind at all. Perhaps this was another mind. The Above knew it felt alien enough…_

"Kojau! No, get up, you can't die, you…"

_Kiete. His voice was fading away as she drifted further from it, toward that surreal place in her mind, that place outlined in soft moonglow…it had been her escape, she knew that, when she had nowhere else to go. But even that was changing, fading away. And she had to change with it in order to retain the little sense of self she had left…_

And suddenly, she was back. She had been here all along physically, but she was only now back in a real sense. The void had vanished, and the tingle running from her head to her spine was stable once more, flowing calmly as if it had never…what had it done, anyway?

"Kojau!" Kiete stepped on her ear. The brief pain associated with that helped to snap her back to reality fully, and she sat up in such a swift motion that her head collided painfully with Kiete's jaw and sent him stumbling backward with a short cry of surprise.

Kojau found herself staring at a void of white as she opened her eyes. Feeling oddly detached, she blinked calmly until it gradually faded as the afterimage of looking at something bright for too long did. Eventually her vision returned to normal, the glare evaporating to be replaced by the cool of the evening. The moonlight seemed awfully dull compared to the place she had reached in her mind seconds ago...

"Ow." Kiete stood a ways behind her, flexing his jaw gingerly, fur bristled up a bit.

"Sorry." Kojau's voice came out hoarse, and she wondered if she had hurt him badly. She certainly hoped not. She did not want to be responsible for hurting others…but when had she ever hurt anyone? The vague echo of her blurry dreaming was fading away, and she was left grasping vainly after it, though she wasn't as frustrated as she usually was at these times. She was getting used to her limitations.

"It's Ok. You've got a hard head. Firra always said I had the hardest head in the world, but now I'm not so sure." He laughed weakly, though he still looked awfully shaky. Kojau didn't think she had ever seen him like this, and it disturbed her.

"You…what did…I mean…" The mightyena got stumblingly to her paws, staggering a bit. She finally found her tongue, barely managing to voice her question. "What happened?" She found herself sitting down in a motion less than graceful, feeling like a pokemon who had just been born and was trying to figure out how to walk for the first time. Very disconcerting.

The little umbreon moved cautiously toward her, then sat down slowly in front of her, rings glowing softly, sharp golden eyes looking a bit duller than Kojau remembered. "You just…you were watching the TV with me. I wanted you to, I though it would cheer you up a bit and be a fun thing to do. I didn't think it would have the sort of effect on you it did…" He looked down at his front paws for a moment, ears drooping, and let his gaze remain there as he continued. "Then, you just sort of seemed to go insane…you looked in pain. You fell on the ground and convulsed…it looked like you were going to _die…"_ He paused, taking a moment to collect himself.

Kojau was feeling sharper and sharper as he went on. The fuzziness that had been there before cleared from her head somewhat, but with it came a feeling…a feeling that she really ought to be remembering something, something important, some feeling she had gotten right before falling into darkness.

"Anyway." Kiete stared up again, sounding a bit more sure of himself than he had been the last time. "Anyway, you were almost gone when I jumped on you and something seemed to flash in my head and then you calmed down and I've been trying to wake you up since then." He paused for a moment. "You haven't been out long, you know. Felt like an eternity to me, though. I was really worried about you. It…it would have been my fault if you would have died."

Kojau pulled herself forcefully out of her thoughts, looking down at Kiete. "Oh, it wouldn't have been your fault," she said hurriedly, pleased to hear that her voice wasn't quite so scratchy sounding anymore. "Things…things tend to happen, especially around me…" She trailed off. "At least, I _think_ it's me. I don't think I'm exactly normal."

Kiete gave her a questioning look, seeming unable to comprehend just what she was trying to say. "You aren't normal?" He blinked those luminous golden eyes back at her. They were beginning to regain some of their spark, and glowed like jewels in his face. "What do you mean? I don't understand."

But Kojau wasn't listening to him anymore. She was staring off into the night around both of them, an odd, worried expression on her face. The neighborhood was as it had been when she had seen it last. The TV in the house wasn't on anymore, which probably meant the man had gone off to bed. No cars were coming along the road. Nothing seemed amiss. It was all quiet and peaceful…

"Kojau?" Kiete was beginning to feel a bit nervous as he caught some of the unease the mightyena was projecting. He moved a closer to her, sitting down beside her, feeling a bit safer as he did so. "What's wrong?" He shuddered as she said nothing, look of worry deepening.

"I think we ought to be heading back now, Kiete…" Kojau's voice was low and soft as she spoke at last, as if trying not to be overheard. The night around them was calm and quiet, yes…but it was a little _too _quiet, a little too calm...like the calm right before a storm.

Heading back?" Kiete got to his paws as she rose to hers, looking at her in askance. "I would think you would want to stay here for a bit, to get your strength back." The umbreon peered up and down the neighborhood in an almost unconscious action. His sharp senses were picking up a very odd feeling, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.

Kojau nodded. "Yes. The night is too still. There's something odd in the air, and the regular night creatures here are sensing it and refraining from making any noises…" She trailed off as an indescribable feeling began to reach her, subtle and with an edge of danger. Eyes glazing over, she tried to focus on it, but found herself grasping at straws as it slipped away and was gone, leaving her feeling as if there was something very, very strange going on.

A breeze gusted gently in from the sea. An empty plastic bag blew across the deserted street with a rustling noise that seemed out of place. Kojau imagined some great beast breathing.

The mightyena ignored Kiete's odd looks as she peered about herself, sensing something in the air that lingered like static. Though the atmosphere was eerie and there was a somewhat dangerous feel about them, she was dead calm, almost feeling detached. Whatever happened, happened. It didn't really matter what happened to her…it had never mattered.

The quiet seemed to grow deeper as Kojau let her attention drift inward. There was something going on, something that involved her somehow, and she had a feeling that some part of her _knew _what it was, or at least what to do about it. It was imperative that she find out.

Kiete was beginning to wonder if that last incident had done something to his friend's head. She had a look on her face that seemed to signify that she wasn't quite there, that her mind was far from her body. He stared at her for a moment, then decided not to say anything and moved back to watch, rings flickering with uneasiness.

Kojau shifted through the limited memories she had in her mind, pulling her attention totally inward, a skill she had always had...or at least, she couldn't remember not having. She felt like crying in dismay and hopeless anger as she found nothing substantial. This was something very important that she had to find, and she _knew _she could find it in her mind, but it was so frustrating…

Then, she found herself quite suddenly in that odd part of her mind, that cool place of the never ending moon and the white sands that seemed the only vestige of her lost past. Her sanctuary. Perhaps she would be able to find answers here.

The feeling of something coming was thick in the air, and the night seemed to grow quieter and quieter, like a void. Kiete was feeling very frightened by now, and Kojau wasn't being at all reassuring. On the contrary, she looked frighteningly like a zombie. Her eyes were shut all the way now, and her head hung limp, her breathing so shallow that it was almost impossible to distinguish. It was as if she was only a husk with no spirit, and she could have been a lifelike puppet or stuffed animal.

The mightyena was completely in her own mind now, her trance so deep that nothing short of some sort of natural disaster would awaken her. She stood in a place where time seemed to stand still, a place of white marble pillars and long, standing pools of water spreading in their hollows. The moon, so much brighter than before, shone down on her luminously, and the stars were unblemished by a thing.

Kojau's imaginary paws left prints on the pale sands of the white desert that faded as she made them. The mightyena glimmered with an odd ethereal light, eyes shining with a soft ivory colored glow. She had hoped to find answers in this place that was here and not here at the same time…but there was no sign of life, so sign that anything would help her.

_I am lost, _she cried out, words stretching out into infinity and twisting away from her like a lazy breeze on a hot summer day. _There is something I must remember that is crucial to the situation at hand, and I cannot. _She let herself slump to the sands when nothing happened, calming herself as the innate rhythms of the earth spread through her. Her trance became complete as she stared up at the jewel that was the moon, so much closer than it had been in real life.

Kojau felt an odd feeling gradually spreading through her body as she lay there; a coolness that focused her and opened a channel through her that she hadn't known she lacked. It became more and more prominent as she focused, sense of self drifting away and leaving her open to even the slightest movement of a grain of sand, the smallest stir in the water.

_We choose are fates… _The whisper drifted in through her forehead, unspeakably ancient, though for some reason it did not surprise her. Her focus complete and unbreakable, Kojau yearned forward, stretching full length on the sands. The voice that was not a voice seemed to come from the earth and the endless night skies, and she could almost feel it vibrating through her body.

"Kojau…?" Kiete moved a bit closer to his friend. The umbreon looked about himself in fear. The night was dead calm, and the still air seemed like ice, ready to crack at any moment and engulf them both in chaos.

_Some choices are important, and some trivial…_Back in her mind, Kojau breathed deeply as the words filled her. It could have been herself who was thinking them for the way they appeared in her mind, and she could not pinpoint the source. She felt a great connection with the place around her as she listened, a safety she had felt so little of before… _One thing leads to another…time goes on no matter what the world around it thinks. However, we have the power to influence it, and in choosing our fates we affect the fates of others and the world as a whole._

"Kojau!" Kiete was feeling panicky, fur bristling up. The silence was deafening, he thought, though that did not make much sense. "Kojau, we need to go…something comes!" He definitely did not want to stay now.

_It is up to you what you choose to do with your life…only you can decide what will come of your actions… _The words were fading away, and Kojau found herself coming out of that great harmony around her. Dismayed, she tried to grasp after it, but that only made the 'voice' blur ever more. _However, if one is to see past the surface of things, see the deeper connections…then and only then can one realize that there are truly no limitations… _The last whispers died away in Kojau's mind, and she found herself quite suddenly back in her body, back as if she had never left.

Kiete blinked, fur smoothing down again. The feeling of something coming that had been so thick in the air had passed right as Kojau opened her eyes. The night held no danger for them now, and the young umbreon felt hopelessly confused and frazzled.

Kojau looked dazed as the crickets began to chirp again and the night around them returned to normal. She blinked to herself, trying to grasp after the meaning of what had just happened and failing utterly. _No limitations…no… _She couldn't seem to understand the whole experience, and already the words she head heard in the white desert were fading from her memory as if they had never been there. The place in her mind she had been to was as familiar to her as an old friend, and yet she could not recall a time when she had actually gained knowledge from it…and she realized suddenly that she had no idea what it was at all. It certainly wasn't normal…but then, nothing was.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, the mightyena took in her surroundings. The danger that had been present earlier had left, yes, but all was not well. There was something important…something she needed to do.

"Kojau?" Kiete's voice sounded strained. "Are you OK?"

The mightyena shook herself slightly and looked down at Kiete as if she had never seen him before. "I'm fine." Her voice was oddly strong sounding when she spoke at last, carrying a note of urgency to it that made Kiete look questioningly at her. The visit to that place in her mind had rejuvenated her if nothing else, and now she felt calm and collected, as if nothing could happen now that would bring her down. But there was still that odd feeling…

"There's something…something I need to do…" Kojau turned from the umbreon and padded a ways off down the sidewalk, tail so low it brushed the ground. She had a feeling what had just happened to her had some sort of deep, hidden meaning, but it was escaping her just now. There was something the voice in her head had been trying to tell her, she knew, to communicate to her, and it was important. Something hidden…something lurking beneath the calm surface of life that she could only guess at. And as the wind blew softly around her, caressing her body, Kojau closed her eyes and let her head empty of all thoughts, hoping answers and a direction to take would come to her.

"Let's go, Ko'." Kiete stood beside her, the tuft of fur on his head blowing over his yellow orbs in a comical motion. "Firra will be worried, and you look tired." He watched her for a moment, then brushed against her a bit as she failed to respond.

The mightyena's eyes opened slowly, a fervent light burning in them. Kiete stepped back a bit, faltering. He had never seen such a look in his friend's eyes.

"It's time…" Her voice was soft, carrying an oddly wild edge to it that sent chills down the umbreon's spine. "Time I stopped wandering through life aimlessly and without purpose. For a purpose if now before me…" She trailed off. "And I must not loose sight of it."

Kojau turned her eyes to the night sky, a new resolution lighting up her face. She slowly began to walk out toward the road going through the neighborhood, paws leaving the sidewalk and taking her to the middle of it. The moonlight silhouetted her as she stared up at the luminous white sphere hanging in the sky. The tingle in her back seemed to fill her whole being suddenly, an odd emotion singing through her chest that brought tears to her eyes and made her feel as if anything was possible at the same time. She was aware of Kiete eyeing her from the sidewalk, worry in his eyes, and felt badly for putting him through this…but she knew what she had to do now, knew where she had to go. Run, she thought. Run like the wind. And that was just what she did.

"_Kojau_!" Kiete cried out in dismay as his friend suddenly took a deep breath and went tearing off into the night as if hellhounds were on her heels. Her paws barely touched the ground as she headed off down the street, cutting a corner at the end and disappearing. Her path took her toward the outskirts by the sea…the place where…

Kiete's mind screamed danger. He had been continuously told not to go in the direction his friend was heading in…there was danger there, danger down by the sea, for that was the place of the abandoned human project. His little cousin had gone there once, had managed to get in, and had never returned.

But he had to watch out for his friend, right? Friends were supposed to look out for each other, and Kojau didn't seem to be herself. On the contrary, she had been acting almost possessed, as though in the grip of madness.

He couldn't go with her to that place down by the sea, though! Even humans didn't go there anymore! If it had gone out of even their control, what would it do to pokemon? Swaying with indecision, Kiete wished desperately now that he had thought to ask Firra more about that place. He had a vague hope that perhaps Kojau wasn't really going there at all, but it was a very dim one, and he was somehow grimly certain that that was where she was headed.

Kiete was running out of time to decide. He realized vaguely that he was shaking, and had never felt smaller than he did now. It was a new feeling to him, this queasiness in the pit of his stomach, this indecision.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he mumbled to himself. "Oh, Above, what am I to do…? I don't want to get hurt, but if I don't go, Kojau might…" He trailed off, preferring not to imagine what might become of Kojau.

He would never be able to forgive himself if he let her get hurt, he thought. There really was no choice here, and somewhere in the back of his mind he already knew what he was going to do. His time for dallying was up.

Kiete's paws pounded along in Kojau's tracks as he sprang forward and down the road, keen senses serving him excellently as he followed the mightyena's trail. It wasn't hard, not really, for he found much to his dread that she was indeed heading toward the outskirts by the sea, away from the busy parts of the city and toward the alleys that would lead there.

And, as he thought on the danger he had sensed earlier, he realized that Kojau wasn't running away from it at all, but _toward _it…

* * *

Kojau's breath rattled in her chest as she ran lightly on, having already made it across several neighborhoods. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, she reflected, and she began to feel a little bad for taking off on Kiete like that. But this was important somehow, important in ways that she could feel in her soul.

The wolf like pokemon cut across a nearby yard and found herself in an alley, very narrow and choked by weeds. Slowing down somewhat, she pushed her way through it, feeling a bit squashed and claustrophobic as she made her way through. It was a relief when she finally reached the other side.

The place she came out in was a bit depressing and powerful feeling at the same time. The buildings were ramshackle and crumbling, and chunks of mortar littered the pavement. The pavement itself was broken in multiple places by weeds and the like. Kojau wondered why the place had been abandoned, for it had obviously been deserted for a long while.

But this was not the place she was heading to. The mightyena could feel it as she strode out into the deserted square in the middle of the deteriorating buildings, the only place relatively clear of rubble. With the moon shining down on it, it looked strangely like some sort of hallowed place of legend. Kojau felt oddly subdued as she stood there, trying to see a way to go on. Eventually, her eyes found an alley between two of the buildings in front of her.

The pokemon moved cautiously toward it, feeling as if she had stepped out of a safe place as she made her way from the center square. She paused and glanced behind herself, the fur prickling up on her back. It was an eerie feeling. She could go back now, or she could choose to go on and face whatever it was she felt she needed to. Turning, she continued on again.

The next alley was even smaller than the one before, and it made Kojau feel uneasy. The buildings on either side of it looked unstable, and the slight breeze wafting through down it smelled odd. Kojau tried to see the end of it, but there was a heap of rubble blocking it that made that impossible.

Kojau wavered. There was danger here, an odd sort of danger. She sniffed. Two sorts of danger, actually. One related to the danger in the air she had felt earlier that had passed by while she was in trance. The other was…odd, to say the least.

It was a sort of peril Kojau had never sensed before, and she didn't know quite what to think of it. She could smell the sea beyond, and knew she must be very close to it. But there was a strange scent there, a scent that reeked of oil and machinery and pollution. Disgusting.

And there was something else there as well, something that she could only sense vaguely. A sort of demented presence, and she realized sharply that that was what had drawn her. It was an aura that was oddly like hers, though its overtones were of pain and fear and madness.

Well, she wasn't going to get anything done while standing here and trying to figure out the complex things she was sensing. Tensing up, she made her way into the alley, wincing and feeling a touch claustrophobic as her sides brushed against the walls. Bearing forward, she eventually found the rubble pile standing in front of her, obscuring her view of anything behind it.

Kojau peered up at it and decided that she could climb it. Backing up without hesitation, she leaped forward and caught the top of a boulder with her front paws, hoping against hope that it would bear her weight… It shifted a bit as she pulled herself up onto it, and Kojau gave an involuntary yelp of fear as it tumbled free of the rest of the boulders. She made a wild leap from it and barely managed to gain the next boulder, which gave an ominous creaking sound but did not move.

Panting in fear, Kojau tried to remind herself that the real danger lay ahead of her. She eventually managed to calm her shivering, deciding that perhaps she ought to take the time to figure out a clear path to the top. She eventually found one that looked reasonably stable after closely scrutinizing the rubble and set off again, albeit a bit more carefully this time.

Kojau managed to gain the top without further incident. Catching her breath, she looked out before her and lost it again.

A place stretched before her that was unlike any she had ever seen in her life. There was a huge, tall fence with barbed wire on the top that ringed the top ridges of a sort of one sided valley. The ground sloped down from the fence into a place that Kojau could only describe as disturbing.

It looked as though it may have been a factory once upon a time. Great buildings rose from infected earth that nothing would grow upon. The buildings themselves seemed menacing, rising like great steel beasts ready to spring upon something.

Kojau could just not comprehend how utterly _dead_ it was, though. The ground was dull and bleached seeming, lifeless. It was like a graveyard, deserted.

And the smell…the smell was what really got to Kojau. It was a sharp, disgusting scent that made the mightyena want to barf until she got used to it. It stank of man-made disasters, of pollution and poison and things that had sank into the earth and putrefied it. Pools of lethal sludge and liquid that had refused to evaporate still stretched along parts of the ground.

The main building that stood in her line of sight had a huge hole blasted in the roof, and the darkened top floor was opened to the night sky. It looked forbidding and seemed to serve as a sign to anyone who came upon it: Go Back.

Beyond the place glittered the sea, its water casting a faint glow. Kojau found she was unable to take her characteristic comfort it this, however. She could only feel a vague sensation of danger and wrongness, as if there were even worse things out there than what she saw. Such a place wasn't meant to mar the earth. It was hell.

And Kojau had to go into it, she knew. She had to go there and find out whatever was exuding that odd aura that that reminded her so much of herself. She had to find answers.

The mightyena blinked as that familiar aura suddenly obtained the sour tinge of fear, of trying to escape something. The dangerous presence she had felt earlier made itself known in her consciousness. Both were down there somewhere.

Kojau felt the bite of fear and uncertainty in her stomach as she began to descend the rubble toward the fence to try to find a way inside. She knew vaguely that this was her last chance to go back, and she also knew that she wouldn't go back, _couldn't _go back, not now.

She also knew she was descending into a danger that she might not be able to get herself out of. But she had to continue on, for if she didn't see what it was that was down there that had called to her so strongly, she would never be able to face the world again…

* * *

(That was an oddly hard chapter to do. Had to go through it to change things a lot... Anyway, I'll be going on vacation sometime near the fourth of next month and will be relatively unable to access the computer until the month after that, so don't expect any updates. Thank you for the reviews!) 


	9. Fire on the Water

Chapter Nine-Fire on the Water

Kojau's paws scraped across the last boulder of the rubble pile, and she found herself standing suddenly upon scraggly, dead looking grass that surrounded the fence. The mightyena bent down to sniff it and made a little sneezing sound as she jerked her head upward again, nose wrinkled up. Whatever it was that was down there beyond the fence must have somehow leaked through to here. That would probably account for the unhealthy state of the grass here, and Kojau felt as though she was standing on tainted ground.

Shaking the morbid thought from her head, she slinked up to the fence and peered through the slats, half expecting to see some sort of horrible monster come rushing out of one of the buildings down there and…do whatever monsters did. The thought of a monster seemed oddly familiar and strangely _present. _She felt she understood it well, but, as usual, she couldn't have said why.

That sense of the two things down there was still present, and Kojau closed her eyes and tried to sense it better. An image of a large hunt going after a ninetales came to her mind, and she likened the two presences to it. One had the fear sense, and the other practically reeked of predator. The predator seeming one seemed to be multiple as well, though it was hard to tell why.

Kojau dimly realized that she was dawdling, and it was probably because of fear. Still she gazed through the fence, prolonging the time before the moment when she would have to go on and find a way through. She looked up at the sky, which was only now lighting up with the first tinge of dawn. She looked at the multiple deserted buildings in the valley below her, and she shivered as she gazed upon the large hole blasted in the roof of the largest and most centered building, wondering what had caused it. She eyed the darkened sea before her, and reflected that she could probably go out to it and escape into the waters if something happened. It wasn't much of a reassurance, though.

The fearful presence down there was somewhere out of her line of sight, and she felt vaguely relieved as its aura of fright calmed down somewhat, and the hunters' aura grew frustrated. She wondered why the fearful aura felt so much like her own. She had thought that she was the only one who sported that unnatural feel to her…well, her and that arcanine that had chased her before. She shuddered a bit at the thought of the arcanine, and the oddest feeling of foreboding began to grow inside of her…

Trying in vain to soothe her fears, Kojau broke out of her paralysis and moved along the fence, seeking to find a weak spot where she could get inside. She trotted along it until the backs of the abandoned houses stopped her from going further. The fence touched upon them from both sides as the valley dipped down, hemming Kojau into a small space, and she found she couldn't go any further. Belatedly, she wondered how the other two had gotten inside, and felt an odd mixture of relief and annoyance, though the relief was foremost.

"Kojau!" She started as a very familiar high pitched voice chimed in behind her, and turned her head slowly, blinking as she made out the blue rings.

Kiete peered at her as he came fully out of the alley behind her, yellow eyes hazy in his weariness. He had been running straight out for a long time now, and had dared not slow down for fear he would loose Kojau's scent. Sure, he had known basically where she was going. He could have missed a place where she had turned, though, and ended up going to this dangerous place when she hadn't even gone there at all, risking his well being for nothing.

Well, all his hopes that she wasn't heading here were pretty much squashed by now, anyway. He felt a shudder run down his spine as he looked upon the place he had been taught to fear. It looked every bit as awful as he had been told it was, and if the story behind it was true he wanted nothing to do with it at all. He determined to at least try to talk Kojau out of going there, but for now was too breathless to say a word. He simply stood there, panting and satisfied that his friend wasn't going to run off any time soon.

"Kiete." Kojau's voice was a bit blank sounding, and Kiete detected an apology in those expressive eyes of hers. It was accepted in the umbreon's mind even before she voiced it, though he did wait for her words. "I'm sorry."

"It's Ok." Kiete sat himself down, wrinkling up his nose at the scents drifting through to him. "Stinks here." He scratched a floppy seeming ear with his hind foot, though he remained on alert.

"It does." Kojau's tone was somewhat beaten sounding, and she could feel the earlier rush of excitement and adrenalin draining out her as she spoke. "Truly awful place. Wonder why it was abandoned…?"

Kiete frowned a bit to himself. "I know…sort of. Firra told me what she knew, though I think perhaps she overpowered some parts in order to get the point across." He smiled wanly, pausing a bit before he went on. "See, this used to be a big industrial laboratory place, before it was abandoned. You know…like a factory and lab combined, though it's sort of hard to understand and they did cover it up, 'cause they were doing some illegal things there." He stopped again to collect himself, and Kojau was reminded just how much better Firra was at telling a story.

"So…it was here for a while…the lab place, I mean," Kiete said vaguely. "And then things started to happen. People noticed a sour taint to the air in the city and such. Sometimes there would even be weird, air born polluted stuff that floated around and was poisonous. You know…stuff like that. And it just got worse." He looked a bit empty headed for a moment, his expression that of a youngster trying to sound good in front of an elder and not really knowing how. Kojau was patient, and he continued soon. "Of course, this was all before I was born. I'm not even sure if Firra was around at the time. I never really asked her. Anyway, people were starting to get agitated and suspicious and all that. You know how people are. The place couldn't last. And one day, a young girl and her father went there to try to see what was happening, because the girl's father was rich and in the police or something of the sort and he wanted to…I dunno, to do an investigation." He frowned. "I am not telling this well at all!"

"It's Ok," Kojau hurriedly said. She was becoming more and more fascinated with the tale by the moment, and besides, it was something to distract her from what she had to do.

"Well," Kiete went on, "they had some sort of odd substance there or something, a sort of substance that was dangerous, and they were using it on pokemon…I don't really know in what way. Like I said, it was a lab and a factory place. They were doing bad, illegal stuff to pokemon and doing bad, illegal stuff with other things. Dangerous stuff. So, anyway, the man was talking to all the laboratory people and trying to negotiate an investigation, or to get past them. And the little girl just wandered off and went up the stairs out of sight of the adults. She got way up in the restricted wing of the place…to the top floor." He motioned to the building with the top blasted off, and Kojau felt her stomach churn. "No one stopped her, because I guess everyone was down talking to her father or something. And she found all those poor experimental pokemon up there and a lot of other weird stuff. Now, she was only a small girl and didn't have much common sense, you know, and she had a kind heart. So when she saw a pokemon contained in the first cage that looked almost dead, she determined to get it out and try to help it. She managed to somehow open up the cage, and the pokemon got out. It didn't attack her or anything, and she set out to let the others out. She had nearly let all the experimental pokemon out when something happened. The pokemon all experimented on with the illegal substance seemed to start going insane, though they didn't hurt the girl. And then there was a weird pulse from a room on top that apparently contained the substance the experimental pokemon carried and everything just exploded on the top floor." Kiete shuddered again. "The people downstairs tried to get out of the building, but only the girl's father and a few other people managed to escape, for the odd substance that exploded on the top floor was also triggered on the bottom floors…" Kiete trailed off, then intoned in a whisper, "The girl was found, mostly bones…found with her arms around the neck of one of the poor experimental pokemon, trying to calm its suffering even in the face of her own demise. I don't really think humans are too good, but she…she was one of the good ones for sure." He was silent then.

Kojau looked thoughtful. She reflected that she seemed to be hearing all kinds of odd tales suddenly, and she wondered wryly if perhaps this was going to be the last one she would ever hear. If the building down there was dangerous, then…wait. "Why haven't the humans torn it all down?" She asked Kiete, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the night wind.

"They did try, once," the umbreon replied, a bit reluctantly, Kojau though. "But there was another explosion that killed the workers there when they got inside the building. The girl's father, mourning his daughter's loss, bought the place and ordered it to be kept untouched so that no one else would loose their lives unnecessarily." He gave a sort of shrug. "I know it sounds messed up, but the place isn't harming anything now that it's shut down and all. Or at least, not really harming anything." He motioned toward the ruins behind them. "The community around here had almost all left by the time the incident happened, for a factory such as this isn't the best place to live around. The rest vacated the area after the incident, and no one has lived here since. This place is thought of as dangerous, and that's why it's all fenced off and separated from the rest of the city."

Kojau found herself frowning. Something didn't seem quite right about that. "But…" She struggled to find the right way to voice her thoughts. "That just doesn't seem like humans, to leave something like this untouched. It's just not their way. They would have torn it down eventually…" She trailed off, feeling inarticulate but satisfied that she had voiced her question.

Kiete looked pensive. "I know it doesn't really seem quite right…but Kojau, people are _scared_ of this place. Sane people, anyway. They've avoided it for a long time now, and nothing has happened to make them decide otherwise." He sighed. "And sometimes, things like this can't really be explained logically. This is a place of danger and badness, and even the earth around it is sick…which is why you can't go in there." He turned large, pleading golden eyes on Kojau. "I don't want you to get hurt…"

Kojau opened her mouth, then shut it again, finding she had nothing to say. She simply stared at Kiete for a long time, as if trying to see some answer to this whole situation in his eyes. There was nothing, though…there never seemed to be any answers, never…

Kiete made a sound in the back of his throat, breaking the thin silence that hung over them. He took a breath and began to speak once more. "Kojau…if you're so intent on going in there…at least tell me _why_…" His last word was a mere whisper, and he suddenly looked very young and lost in the faint light of early dawn.

"It's just that I must, Kiete." Kojau found the words coming to her naturally, hesitation oddly absent. "I don't know why, but I just _know _I have to go there. There's something important I must see, something I have to realize, and if I don't, I'll spend the rest of my life wondering what could have happened, what might have been." She looked deeply into the umbreon's large eyes, searching for understanding there. "It's destiny, Kiete, destiny. Some things you just have to do, not matter what the price is, no matter how much you risk you own safety. Some things are more important than those matters."

Kiete simply looked at her for the longest time. She was beginning to think despairingly that he had not understood at all when he spoke again, voice even and soft at the same time. "I think…I understand, Kojau. I don't really know how, but I do…" He let out a long, shuddering breath. "I'm not going to follow you in there…but I will try to help you find a way in."

A smile lit up Kojau's face. "Thank you," she said simply, though there was a wealth of meaning conveyed in that one word.

"Nothin' to thank me for," Kiete replied a bit embarrassedly, though there was a smile hidden in his voice. He got to his feet slowly and padded over to the fence, sniffing around it and moving toward the end of it as Kojau followed behind him.

"I can sense things," he explained, looking over his furry shoulder at her. "Things I shouldn't be able to. If there's a weakness in this fence, rest assured that I shall be able to find it." He paused a moment, then went forward a bit more quickly, stopping at the spot where the fence met the run down buildings and made it impossible to go on.

Kojau followed behind him, looking fascinated. She didn't feel the need to hurry, for the fearful presence had calmed down and the hunting presence appeared to have lost the trail.

"Hmmm…" Kiete looked up at the part of the fence that met the back of one of the abandoned houses, then reared up on his hind legs. "Uff…!" He swung himself forward, front paws hitting the back of the house. There was a hollow creaking sound, but nothing happened.

Kiete dropped back to all fours, grinning a bit and backing up. "Ohh, this is gonna be fun…" His grin widened as he raced forward and leaped, hitting the wall hard.

Kojau stared, wondering just what he was trying to do. Then, it finally hit her that the fence was attached to the wall as Kiete leaped forward again. A long crack appeared in the wall as he slammed into it this time, and there was a gleeful expression in his huge golden eyes as he backed up and grinned at Kojau.

"I like wrecking things," he explained as he came up beside her. "It's fun." He panted a moment, getting his breath back, then licked his lips and looked up at her. "It's almost over, Kojau. The wall is so weak there that I'm betting if we get it to crack that it will fall inward and take the fence with it. If you help me leap at it this time, I'm pretty sure we can make it fall."

"I don't know…" Kojau looked a bit uncertain. "It could be dangerous." She gazed at the cracked wall and fence and frowned.

"Well, it's the only way to get in from here." Kiete nudged her impatiently. "And besides, going where you're headed is probably more dangerous than knocking down a fence!" He scoffed.

Kojau drooped a bit, wishing it could all just be done with. She could still go back, she knew. She didn't really have to go in to that awful looking place before her, behind the fence. It wasn't like anyone was making her. "Fine," she said reluctantly. "We'll knock it down."

Kiete's face lit up in that delighted, destructive expression once more. "Okay!" He backed up, standing at an angle that would take him toward the part of the wall connecting to the fence. "Start running when I do…ready…GO!"

Kojau gave a small cry of effort as she and Kiete ran forward and leaped into the air side by side. Her paws were jarred and smarted as she hit the wall, hard. A cracking sound in her ears made her wince, and she realized belatedly that the surface under her feet was leaning forward and she wasn't falling. The fence gave a screeching sound as their mass combined with a large part of the wall's brought it inward. Kojau saw the inside of the house suddenly, and she had a disorienting sensation that she had somehow stepped into another world, it looked so different from the outside…

"Juuuuuump!" Kiete's yell brought Kojau sharply back to her body, and she lunged and hurtled through the air, landing a ways away from the wall and tripping forward. Dust flew up around her as she fell into the old rug on the floor, her landing cushioned nicely by it.

"Whooo…nice one!" Kiete's joking voice drifted to her ears over the quite that now reigned over the room. Kojau looked up, sneezing in the thick dust she had stirred up, wondering what had happened. Had their efforts been for nothing…?

A large section of the house's dirty wall was suspended a few feet above the ground in front of her, and the section of the fence it was attached to had bent inward along with it, just barely holding it up. While the fence hadn't ripped completely free of the wall, it still left a clear way inside the place before them.

"Well." Kojau got slowly to her paws, shaking herself off a bit. Dust drifted from her coat as if she herself had lain prone long enough to collect it. "Well." It seemed to be all she could say at the moment.

Kiete stepped forward until he stood beside her. "Kojau…be careful. And give a shout if you need any help." He motioned toward the wall and fence. "It's time you went, I suppose…unless you've made up your mind that you won't go?" His eyes didn't look too hopeful.

Kojau looked a bit guilty. "I'm sorry, Kiete. I _will _be all right, though. I promise." She grinned vaguely and nuzzled him lightly behind one of his ears before starting forward and toward the wall. It creaked a bit as she mounted it, but the fence held it up.

Kiete watched intently as she made her way gingerly over the sagging fence and leaped off on the other side. He made a vain attempt at a smile as she turned around to look at him.

"Even the earth feels wounded over here." Though her voice was near sounding, Kiete fancied she was already miles away. "This really is a bad place." She scuffed a paw around, shuddering, then returned her gaze to the umbreon standing on the other side of the fence. "I think I ought to head toward that building over there…the center one." She motioned with her muzzle toward the large building with the hole in the top floor. It stretched high up in the dawn, and Kiete felt a shudder run through him as he looked at it. "The buildings around it are where I'm sensing the fear-feeling."

Kiete peered at the smaller buildings clustered around the high one and nodded, feeling nervous and wishing he had the courage to go with his friend. "We…haven't really seen anything yet." He said softly, eyes dark with worry. "So it would make sense that whatever it is you're…you're _sensing _something?" He lay his ears back. "You didn't tell me that!"

Kojau looked apologetic. "Sorry!" She mustered up a small grin. "You might not have let me go if I told you, though!"

"Doubt I could have stopped you," Kiete grumbled. He fell silent after that for a time, and when he finally spoke once more, his words seemed to hang on the air. "Luck go with you. Be swift of paw and keen of thought and you shall come out on top." It was an ancient proverb Firra had taught him, and he hoped fervently that it would help Kojau.

The mightyena nodded to him, then turned resolutely and began to trot off down the hill and into the 'valley' where the buildings were, leaving a disturbed and worried umbreon in her wake.

* * *

Kojau wanted very badly to turn back as she descended slowly toward the grim looking place in front of her. The sour smell got stronger and stronger as she went on, and she wrinkled up her nose, finding she had to stop for a moment to get used to it. She noticed that absolutely nothing grew here, and the ground under her paws was an oddly pale shade of brown, as if bleached of its natural color.

There was a path ahead of her, a sidewalk of sorts, though the cement was cracked in places. It went down into the deteriorating factory before her and wound around to all the buildings.

Kojau felt a bit safer as she mounted the path, though she thought this was probably ridiculous. In anything, this would only make her a clearer target for any enemies.

Striving to take her mind off this train of thought, the mightyena instead tried to sense the presences again. The frightened one appeared to be hiding somewhere in one of the buildings near the largest one, and the other presence was somewhere a ways off, supposedly looking for it.

Kojau felt small as she realized that she really had no clear idea where the hunter-ish presence was. It could be anywhere, and it could come upon her all too easily. The mightyena paused as she came down into the valley and looked nervously about herself, half expecting some monster to come bearing down on her. But all was silent and calm. It seemed almost unnatural…

Kojau peered around behind herself, spotting Kiete above her near the fence. He was watching her worriedly, looking tense and nervous. He nodded to her as she looked at him, but didn't say anything.

Feeling somewhat reassured, Kojau continued on. Kiete would be able to spot anything she didn't see, and she felt sure he would warn her if he saw anything the least bit suspicious.

The buildings were still a ways away, and Kojau broke into a trot to soothe her nervous energy and get to them more quickly. She made out a fence behind them all in quick glimpses and saw the flicker of the sea beyond that fence. The sky above the great body of water was the uniform grey of dawn, and Kojau once more felt a sense of destiny across that ocean, so mysterious looking in the wan light…

Focusing on the endless water, she barely even noticed as she came up before the tallest building. Its aura was what really got her to look up at it, an odd feeling of immensity and something warning her to use caution. With a gulp, Kojau stared up at the building. She hadn't realized how truly monstrous it was until now.

It climbed up into the sky for what seemed like miles, and looked oddly ancient, deteriorating and crumbling on some parts. A few of the windows had fallen out, leaving dark caverns in its sides. And the top floor, blown opened to the sky, yawned like the cavernous mouth of some ravenous beast looking for prey.

Kojau was repelled from it and attracted to it at once. It seemed a place of great enormity somehow, and it looked mysterious, as of there was something to find up on one of its many stories. And yet…yet there was something about it that was decidedly dark, something hopeless and heavy and depressing.

At any rate, Kojau was a bit relieved that she didn't actually have to go into it. She tore her gaze from the tall building with an effort and let it rove to the many smaller buildings surrounding it. They ranged in size from sheds to houses, and she tried to sense which one the fearful presence that felt so much like herself was in. After a moment of casting about, she decided that it wasn't coming from any one of the buildings in sight and decided to go around back to look.

Being in the 'shadow' of the tall building made her fur prickle, and she stepped off the pavement and moved a little ways away as she went around back.

The buildings around back were much like the ones up front, only they were a bit taller. The back itself was more interesting than the front, if you could call the things Kojau saw there interesting. There were puddles of goopy dark colored 'stuff' around some of the buildings and off the cemented path that smelled positively rancid, and the mightyena immediately took to the sidewalk again to avoid touching any part of the earth they may have contaminated. The fence before her went along the beach a ways from the water, though the sand looked bleached, much like the dirt around there. But the oddest thing was that the aforementioned fence eventually sloped down and out into the water before it touched onto cement walls. These walls spread out into the sea in a box like shape for a long way, the fence starting up again on the other side and coming back in to shore. The cement walls were so tall that they obscured anything inside them, even out to sea. It was almost like a cage. An oceanic cage…

Kojau wondered if something was trapped there or had been trapped as she peered upward. Her eyes found that the tall building above her branched out into a platform from the top story and went out above the cage in the ocean, as if it was some sort of odd diver's platform. For some reason, it made Kojau shudder, and she turned her attention quickly away from it and back to the buildings, casting around for the fearful presence once more.

It was nearby, she found, very near indeed. In her excitement, she forgot all about the second presence and managed to pinpoint a certain building, one of the taller ones. The mightyena ran up to it, feeling an odd yearning as the scared presence that was so like herself intensified. Perhaps she could finally find answers here...

She found the door to the building unlatched, and pushed it open. She made a fatal flaw in her excitement, however; she didn't look behind herself, didn't pause to sense the second presence.

What was in that building didn't do anything to help her senses, either. There was what appeared to be another mightyena there, cowering in the corner. His fur was grimy and dirty, one leg bent at an odd angle. Patches of his fur appeared to have been burned off, and raw red places could be seen on the skin there, as if from burns only recently healed. His eyes, however, seemed to defy everything; they were bright and full of life, though they did look a bit hopeless. Kojau thought for a second that the fur had been burned away from his head in two places, but upon closer inspection she found she could see two pale spots there, like smooth white rock…

He looked up at her as she looked at him, and those bright eyes of his locked onto hers. They widened a moment later, as if in realization that she and he were alike.

They both simply gazed upon each other for what seemed an eternity, and it was as if a bond was established then and there, as if they took comfort in each others' presence somehow. It could have been compared to a human stranded on an island for a year who happened upon another of his kind. It was a feeling too deep for words, though there was a fierce hope there.

And then it was broken. Everything seemed to happen slowly due to Kojau's fired senses, and she found she could remember it all to the tiniest detail later. The mightyena before her's eyes suddenly widened in horror, and he tore his gaze away from her own, breaking the link. Kojau felt an odd sense of loss, as if she had been denied something very important to her well being.

His mouth opened, and she could see his canines, pearly and beautiful looking in the faint darkness. "Get down! Down!" His rich voice was urgent as he spoke, and it was as if he sent a vibe along the same-ness they shared, for she quite suddenly found herself laying flat out on the ground, a large shadow cast over her. And then there was blazing heat, and she thought for a moment that she was being burned up. But there was no hurt, and she realized the heat was above her as she opened her eyes and heard a cry of unbearable pain and sorrow.

Kojau saw fire before her where the other mightyena had been, and a shadow in it that gradually died with the cry and faded out altogether. She couldn't seem to comprehend what had happened, not even when she saw a pile of white ashes before her as the stream of flame winked out and was gone. All she knew was that the aura that was like hers was gone, that _he_ was gone, and the old familiar sense of emptiness within her was back once more.

Two large orange paws on either side of her moved suddenly, and something huge stepped carefully over her and went to inspect the pile of white ashes, hot breath stirring it a bit. Kojau stared bemused at its orange and black pelt for a moment. Then it turned its head ever so slightly and she saw those familiar dead eyes, that thoughtless visage. It was the arcanine…

Kojau yelped and leaped backward, stumbling into the wall of the building and falling through into a side room as the flimsy wood crumbled, unable to support her weight. She winced as she felt herself slide a bit in some sort of goopy substance that was thick on the ground there, the sludge feeling slimy under her paws and unclean on her fur. She tried to move backward more, but her head felt uncoordinated with her body and all she did was tremble and jerk a bit, pawing in the sludge and staring at the arcanine in horror.

However, the arcanine didn't even notice her. He simply seemed to stare straight through her as he let his gaze wander the room, no flicker of emotion in those pupil-less white orbs. Kojau felt as though she was in the middle of a nightmare from which there was no escape. Here, then, was the predator. No more mysteries there, right? No real reason for her to have come here…

"You got it?" The voice was drifted in from the outside, and it took Kojau's strained mind a few seconds to realize it was human. The arcanine was looking expectantly at the door, and a few moments later a tall man walked through, brown hair neatly slicked back. He showed no fear of the arcanine as he strode past it and looked in satisfaction at the pile of ashes in the corner. "You got it." This time it was a statement. And then the man suddenly reached into the pile of ashes and pulled out two perfectly smooth white stones, undamaged by the fire. And he laughed. It was a low, rich sound, as if he was mocking the world and all around him. Sliding the stones into the pack on his back, he dusted his hands of the ashes and chuckled to himself.

Kojau was petrified. She knew she ought to move, but she could only watch dumbly as the man reached up to give the arcanine a pat on the head. It was an emotionless gesture, though, an empty gesture, much like a man would pat his prized motorcycle.

"Only one more to go." The man sounded satisfied, and Kojau silently wished that he would leave the room. However, it seemed as though this backfired as he took out a cigarette and lit it, calmly pressing it to his lips and blowing smoke into the room. The arcanine simply stood there, robot-like. "Only one more to go, and then we're through with this. Done!" The man laughed again, leaning back against one of the walls, though it didn't break.

Kojau stared at him, heart beating much faster than normal in her chest. She was aware of a faintly stinging sensation, and realized that the unhealthy goop she sat in was probably the cause. She couldn't believe the human hadn't noticed her yet, and, unable to bear the silence any longer, she made a small sound.

The man was immediately on alert, head whipping around the room. He seemed to notice the ruined wall for the first time, and his boots made no sound on the floor as he moved toward Kojau. "No way…" His voice was soft, and then he was in front of her, kneeling down, foul breath against her face.

Kojau did nothing. Her mind was curiously blank of all thoughts at the moment, and as she stared into his face she felt a tinge of what had been and what might be. She couldn't have moved if she would have wanted to.

The man's hand came forward, brown eyes glinting. His fingers made their way through the thick fur on her head, a place where her mane had become overgrown. There was a sudden flash of pain, a blinding white light that obscured her vision for a moment. She did nothing, though, and it was as if she was like the arcanine and void of all emotion.

"Well, I'll be." The man was laughing again, and he took his hand from her head, the fur falling back into place once more. "I'll be." He stepped back a bit, regarding her. "You." The simple word seemed to hang on the air, and then the man was removing an odd object from his pack, an object that looked like a gun but that had a blunt end.

"You're making this too easy for me, you know?" His tone was almost affectionate as he knelt down in front of Kojau again, bringing the thing forward and toward her. Kojau, for her part, felt an odd sort of dull happiness. Finally…she was going home…back to…back to…

The end of the thing was suddenly pressed to her head, and she began to see a faint white light that obscured her vision. There was a pleasant cracking sound in her mind, and she was aware of herself slumping forward, of the world all twisting together and coming down around her and…

There was a blinding pain suddenly as the thing was pulled from her head, and a fierce little noise. The man's cry joined with a rather shrill shout of fury, and Kojau opened her eyes to find herself laying on the ground, slumped forward, the black goo bubbling up around her muzzle and chest. She sat up quickly, nose wrinkled in disgust, and stared.

Blue rings were flashing in the dark, and fangs were set into the man's hand. He was shouting in pain and trying to tear his hand away from something black and fox like that hung on stubbornly, its yellow eyes flashing in the semi-darkness. The arcanine, for its part, stood impassively where it had been all along, looking at nothing.

"Kiete!" The fuzz cleared from Kojau's head suddenly, and she found herself back in complete control of her body, wondering belatedly what had just happened. She stared at the umbreon as the man tried to fling him into a wall. His fangs came loose and he leaped aside, golden eyes flashing as he turned them on Kojau.

"RUN!" His voice was shrill with panic and terror, and Kojau marveled at his bravery in the face of such great danger. She found herself on her paws suddenly, globs of black stuff dripping off her. Forcing down her disgust and urge to lose her meal, she tore out of the room past the man and into the dawn, screeching to a stop on the sidewalk and looking around frantically.

The sun was slowly but surely climbing into the sky, and it was most likely going to be a spectacular sunrise. But Kojau didn't have any time to marvel over this, as she heard a faint shout from inside the building. Something about attack, she thought...

The arcanine burst out of the building behind Kojau and let loose a flamethrower that she didn't know how she managed to dodge. The mightyena flung herself forward and toward the large building before her. It may have been dangerous, but there was worse danger here and now. She had seen what could happen to her…

She came to a stop near a door in the building and threw herself against it without a thought. There was a dull creaking sound, then the door came loose and fell inward, Kojau with it. She stumbled sideways, wild eyed and managing to take in all around her at a glance.

The interior of the building cast an illusion of being bigger than the exterior. The wallpaper had long since faded to grey, and the room she was in was huge. There were many rooms around her connecting to it, and a staircase wound its way upward above her, only to come to a stop. The floor it connected to was wrecked, and the top part of the staircase appeared to have been blown off, making it impossible to climb higher. There was a pipe leading upward through the ceiling near the staircase, and it gleamed faintly of old silver.

Kojau cowered away as there was a sudden blast of fire against one of the windows that was still intact behind her. It fell inward with a crash, and flames gushed into the room. Kojau slid sideways in an effort to get away from them, her paws burning and the black goop on them leaving dark colored smears across the floor.

The arcanine burst through the door in a shower of flames a few seconds later, white mane flying wildly and dead eyes searching the room. They focused immediately on Kojau, who cried out in fear and just barely managed to dodge a second fire blast that blackened the wall behind her.

She leaped away as the arcanine was regaining his breath, legs feeling heavy. Running blindly on, she didn't even notice as her paws took her up the staircase until she came to the part where it had been burned away. Barely managing to stop in time, she teetered on the edge, eyes wide in her fright.

Heavy thumps on the stairs behind her indicated that her demise was coming, and she cursed herself for coming here. Now she was going to die, and her stupidity would go down in history to be told to young eevee cubs in order to keep them away from this place she had so foolishly rushed into.

But Kiete…he had been so brave. He had risked his life for her, willingly, and had even helped her get this far. Was she going to let that all go to waste…?

The mightyena gave a desperate cry and flung herself sideways and into space as she felt the heat of intense flames at her back. She had the odd sensation of flying through the air for a moment…and then her claws sank into something yielding and hard, something that swayed dangerously under her but held. The pipe. She was hanging onto the pipe…

The arcanine stood on the stairs behind her, and she peered into its lifeless eyes in disorientation for a second, swinging with the pipe, watching in morbid fascination as it opened its mouth and…

Kojau cried out and leaped upward, clawing frantically at the pipe as she pulled herself higher, desperation fueling her movements. There was a sheering sound below her, and she looked down in time to see the bottom half of the pipe falling toward the floor, burned away from the rest of it.

The mightyena grimly clawed her way upward. There was a hole in the ceiling above her for the pipe to go through, and it was just small enough for her to hope… The pokemon made a lunge for it with her last bit of energy and squashed herself through it, popping out on the other side and into another room.

This one had long halls branching out from the sides, and the walls were a dingy white. Kojau found herself slipping from the pipe and sprawling out on the floor, practically sobbing for breath. Dizziness made her head feel cloudy, and she shuddered in fear as she heard loud noises below her. Then, there was an awfully loud thudding noise, and the sound of the arcanine's paws pounding upward and toward her filled her with dread. It must have found a way up the stairs…

A banging sound on the door leading into the room was enough to send her staggering to her paws, and she stared transfixed as the metal bent inward with the arcanine's weight. There was a momentary lull, then a gushing sound, and the door glowed red hot with heat.

Kojau turned and ran once more. She felt as though she wasn't quite there as she sprinted up the stairs leading to the next floor, and the next, not pausing long enough even to take in the rooms around her. There was only the urge to climb higher and higher to escape. Somewhere behind her, the metal door gave, and the arcanine was on her trail once more.

It was like the first night, she though. It was just like that, with her being chased by the arcanine, running for her life. Only this time, there was no freeway to save her, and no Kiete to come to her rescue, not now. He had done his part. Not she must honor his bravery and do hers: staying alive, namely.

She barely noticed as the stairs she was ascending began to turn black, and had only time to leap off into space as they stopped altogether, blasted away by some past force much as the stairs on the first floor had been. Her front paws caught on something, and she used her momentum to desperately fling herself forward, smashing down into rubble and seeing stars as her head contacted with something hard.

The early morning light beamed down on the prone mightyena, though there were no windows…or walls, for that matter. She realized dimly that she had come to the end of the line, so to speak, and was laying on the top floor.

It really wasn't so bad, she thought as she regarded the place through blurry vision. It looked ancient, with the rubble all around. The light of the morning seemed to chase shadows of fear away, and the sunrise rose over the sea in a fiery display of glory.

There was a long plank like projection going out over the sea from this place, and Kojau vaguely realized that it was probably running out over that odd cage like place she had seen earlier in the ocean. Her curiosity relentlessly aroused, the mightyena staggered to her paws, barely mustering up enough energy to rise. She was beaten, and she knew it, and the arcanine most likely knew it as well as it appeared behind her.

Kojau stared over her shoulder at it as its eyes locked on her, feeling oddly unafraid. Whatever happened, happened. It didn't really matter…all that mattered was that she made an effort, because life was worth more than just letting oneself be killed.

And so it was that found herself running again, paws drumming on the long plank, half afraid that it would give out underneath her. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she felt an odd sort of exhilaration as she came closer to the edge of the plank, eyes blazing in the morning light.

She saw what was in that sea cage below her as the arcanine mounted the plank behind her. Oddly enough, it didn't surprise her, for she had been expecting something dark, something sinister. Or perhaps it was just that she was so far gone that nothing could really get through to her anymore.

The cage in the water was filled with black, burning liquid that bubbled and reeked of something the likes of which Kojau had never smelled before. The sparkling, clear water nearby clashed horribly with it as it sloshed against the cement walls keeping it from seeping into the ocean, like two opposite sides trying to get at each other. There was an unnatural, acidic heat bubbling up from it.

Kojau's vision landed on an old, rusty cage swinging out from the plank over the black stuff below, and she smelled blood on it. Her mind screamed danger as she raced on, realizing that she would go over the edge and into the killing stuff below…and become bones, just like the bones of the poor, failed experiments she suddenly knew lurked beneath the surface of the black stuff, another piece of knowledge that was suddenly just _there._ She did not question it. To fall into that place was death, death by horrible heat and acidic burning...

And suddenly, there was heat behind her as well, only now it was upon her like a blanket, smothering out all sounds or sights around her. She felt her fur catch fire with the intensity of the arcanine's close range flamethrower, and her eyes watered. Was this what it was like to be burned up? Was she to meet the same fate as the poor mightyena she had seen earlier?

The early morning's light beamed down upon the two figures out on the plank. The mightyena below was encased in fire, flames roaring high on her slick black fur. She looked oddly like a demon of flame, or a demented flareon on some sort of medication. The arcanine was racing along behind her, powerful flamethrower still gushing from its mouth and hitting its prey with deadly accuracy.

It should have been over right then, but life has a way of changing things.

Kojau felt as though she was a ball of fire herself as she squinted her eyes against the heat, a sort of odd, wild exhilaration and energy filling her. She saw the arcanine's paws come down over her, as if it meant to crush her beneath its weight.

And then the plank crumbled. Kojau felt it collapsing under her, she and the arcanine's combined weight too much for it. She heard a long howl, and didn't realize it was hers until her front paws came to the edge of the crumbling plank. She could see herself and the arcanine falling toward the black death in the pen below, see the cage descend into it before them and melt slowly.

And she leaped. She felt an odd rush of sensations as she made that last desperate bound. She could feel the fur of the arcanine's chest against her spine as it fell forward with the plank. She could feel the heat of the fire along her back, and the beginnings of intense pain as it ate through her thick fur and reached the skin below. She could feel the wind as she leaped through the air, and she could hear the sound of the plank and arcanine falling below her as she made that last glorious bound.

But she felt no fear. She seemed to be flying above the sea and the death below her, like a falling angel. And the last thing she saw as she plummeted downward and toward the sea and the darkness below was the sun rising in the sky before her, its light shining down on the ocean around it and seeming to set the water ablaze…

* * *

(Yea, I know I said I wouldn't update until after this month, but I had some time. Thanks for reviewing, everyone!)


	10. Airo

Chapter Ten-Airo

_Pain. _She was certainly no stranger to this pain. However, the combination of pain and exhilaration was altogether something new to Kojau, and both flared inside her at equally high levels, so she didn't know what was up or down or here or there anymore…only the feelings.

Then, everything changed. The wild exhilaration left the wolf like pokemon as she plummeted toward the sea and saw the cement wall of the cage rushing up to meet her. It was replaced by terrible agony as the flames roaring along her back ate into her skin. She felt the first real stirrings of fear as she fell toward the wall and the black acid, for she was certain she was going to fall into that death below her that the arcanine had gone into.

_WHAM!_

Stars seemed to explode before Kojau's eyes as she hit the wall. She could hear a cracking noise, and pain great enough to eclipse that of her burns exploded in one of her front legs. She opened her mouth, but only a strangled squeak came forth as she began to tumble from the wall. It seemed to take a harrowing eternity, and she couldn't force her mind to decide whether or not she was falling toward the sea or the acid. At that point, she was past caring, only wanting the pain to end.

She fell.

_Cold. _The pain coursing through the pokemon's body was replaced by an intense cold, and she felt water wash over her battered body, putting out the fire raging on her shoulders and back in an instant. A slight, peaceful smile spread across her muzzle as she sank deeper and deeper into the sea, the momentum of her fall carrying her down a ways.

_The water. Flowing tides, drifting endlessly, spirit trapped inside a body that should have died long ago but somehow kept on. All air squashed from her lungs, rubble on the bottom of the sea, dreams her only hold on life…_

The air was leaving Kojau's lungs rapidly. She floated several feet underwater, bubbles slowly issuing from her parted jaws and gliding lazily to the top of the water. It seemed so close, and yet so far away…

Everything was entirely fascinating from this viewpoint. The sky above her was hazy and unclear and strangely beautiful through the water. She could see a blurred image of the sun in that sky, and the clouds were as pale reflections of some distant reality. It seemed that she could float here forever, though she supposed she would sink if she tried. The pain seemed as dull now as her world was.

_Leaves falling from the trees outside the window seemed to create reflections of a troubled destiny. Voices calling from beyond the grave on the voice of winter's first tidings, and with it her world was thrown into chaos…September's promise._

Memories, Kojau thought as the bubbles floating to the surface grew scarcer. Only memories. Why now, though? Why at this time when she couldn't focus on them, couldn't pay attention to them?

_A presence._

Kojau flinched. Now, that had definitely not been a memory. There was a presence up…somewhere. Above, perhaps?

The pokemon extended her senses cautiously, casting about around herself. The human…seemed to be leaving, as he was a ways away now and rapidly disappearing from her detection. The arcanine was gone altogether, so the presence above her...

Kojau focused intently above herself and to the right a ways, focusing on the faint image of the large building and the plank she had fallen from and the small black shape on that plank. There. That was where the presence was. A familiar aura, full of energy and life and mystery. Kiete.

Kojau's chest felt tight. There was a fuzzy blackness closing in around her. She thought she could hear a far-away noise, above, and took a few seconds to realize it was Kiete, practically screaming down at her.

He's going to shout himself hoarse, she though, wondering how long he had been at it. A few seconds later, she found herself paddling weakly toward the surface of the water, using only one paw, as her other didn't seem to want to work for her and protested painfully when she tried to move it.

"---UP!" The mightyena's head broke the surface just in time to catch the tail end of that the umbreon above her had been shouting. Simply floating now as she let the sea hold her upright, she squinted against the morning sun and peered up at him. For a long moment, they both simply stared at one another.

"Kojau…" Kiete's voice, sounding scratchy and relieved, drifted down to her on a warm breeze. "Are you…all right?"

Kojau twitched an ear, flinching a bit as the various pains began to hit her, her previous rush of adrenalin fading away. Her useless leg throbbed and didn't feel right. Her paws hurt, and she fancied that perhaps the black goop she had stepped in before had opened sores on them. Her shoulders burned and felt raw in the air and sunlight. "No," She said finally, voice somewhat stronger than Kiete's.

Kiete was silent for a time, seeming to be at a loss for what to say to her. He finally spoke up, however, sounding almost on the verge of tears. "Are…you going to die?"

"No!" The word left Kojau's mouth before she even had time to consider it. Somehow, dieing seemed very bad at this particular moment. "No, I won't die…though I don't exactly see how I'm going to get back to you at the moment…" Her gaze was on the fence that sloped back in from the sea and went on along the shore, separating herself from the umbreon should he come down from the building...well, if he didn't jump into the sea.

Kiete gave it a glance as well, laughing weakly. "Well, I suppose that is a problem." He regarded the fence for a time, then looked down at Kojau again, the morning light hitting his black fur and making it shine with radiance. "Kojau, you need to get back on land. The fence there, it slopes out of the sea a ways from you and along the shoreline. If you can get to that shore, we can figure something out." He frowned. "You stand a chance of drowning if you float there too long."

Kojau sighed to herself, ears drooping a bit. She wanted to just float here, to feel her connection to the sea, to find herself out in the swirling waters. Gazing out into the distance at the vast expanse of water, a great longing came over her. She needed to cross this sea…to get to the other side. But…not now. Now was not the time.

The mightyena slowly paddled around so she was facing the fence and began to make her way laboriously toward it. Paddling with one leg was slow progress, though, and the gentle waves seemed determined to push her back. However, Kojau kept on, trying not to get too discouraged, until she finally felt firm ground under her good paw. Digging her claws into the sand, she remained floating near the fence.

Kiete, standing on the firm end of the plank above, looked down at her. "You gonna be OK there?" He called down to her, voice sounding relieved that she had made it to shore.

"Yea…I think. I've got a hold on the…the shore here…" Kojau panted slightly, surprised at how much energy she had had to exert to accomplish the simple task of swimming to the shore. A thought suddenly hit her, and she peered up at Kiete with a quizzical expression. "Kiete…the arcanine…what do you see of it?" A morbid desire to know had hit her.

Kiete frowned, ears drooping. He seemed about to say something, casting a sidelong glance into the cage in the sea, then shuddering and looking back down at Kojau. "I…" His voice sounded oddly strained, and Kojau fancied his fur was slightly bristled. "I…I'll tell you later…I'm coming down to the fence now." And with that, he was gone, racing back down the stairs, into the building and out of sight.

Kojau frowned a bit. He had sounded so disturbed there. Something bad must have happened to the arcanine…but then, what had she expected? She had already had a pretty good idea of the pokemon's fate.

Did she pity it, though? She thought maybe she ought to feel somewhat guilty, as it had been partially her fault the arcanine had died. But, she _had _been running for her life, and it had been trying to murder her, so… Still, though, the idea of killing except for food unsettled her.

And for food…oddly, she couldn't remember a time when she had killed for food, though she was sure she had. She could remember being taught to hunt when a poochyena, before her recollections came to a halt…but she couldn't actually remember killing anything. She wondered vaguely if she could bring herself to should the opportunity present itself. She didn't appear to really need any food at all, so wouldn't it be a bit of a waste to kill something…? Well, she would look a mess if she didn't eat, she knew. Unnaturally skinny before, she didn't know what she would look like if she didn't eat altogether.

Well, she was a mess at the moment, most likely. If her shoulders looked as bad as they felt…well, it wouldn't be good, not at all.

A sound alerted her, and she glanced over at the large building. Soon enough, Kiete came running out to the back of it, claws making a barely discernible noise on the sidewalk. His rings were rather faint, she saw, as if with exhaustion. Well, that was to be expected, as he had been through a lot lately…

"I'm comin'…" His voice drifted to her ears as he leaped off the sidewalk and to the earth, dodging around a few bad spots on the ground before racing up to the fence. After trotting along it for a bit, he finally came to the spot Kojau now floated a ways off from.

"Hullo," Kojau said, not quite knowing what else to say to the umbreon at the moment. After a time, she added, "What to you plan to do?"

Kiete peered at her for a moment, looking her over, flinching a bit as his eyes landed on her shoulders. "I…well, I don't really have a plan." He grinned faintly. "I never actually did. When I was standing up there at the fence where we came in at and I sensed that you were in trouble, I just sort of ran headlong into things…suppose I was lucky that man didn't kill me or anything."

"Do you know where the man went?" The mightyena looked slightly interested. She didn't sense him at all anymore…she wondered why he had left. Perhaps he thought she had drowned in the sea, or maybe he was only going back to get another…robot. She somehow couldn't bring herself to think of the arcanine as a pokemon like herself, because that would mean comparing it to herself…

"Well…he ran outside after the arcanine, after he shook me off his hand." Kiete scratched an ear with his forepaw briefly, mussing up the tuft of fur on his head. "Banged my head on the wall of that one room really hard…think I fainted for a bit." He winced. "Anyway, he ran outside, and that's all I can really tell you. I woke up when he was leaving or after he left, I think."

"Ah." Kojau nodded slowly. Well, that made sense, she supposed. She probably would have left also, though she did not like putting herself in that human's place. Now, the question was, what would she have left for? Reinforcements? Some sort of backup? Perhaps another of those mindless servants? Well, it wouldn't be good for her if any of those was true…she couldn't possibly stay here without risking endangering herself further.

Kiete was peering off down the fence, yellow eyes seeming to blaze in the sun. He looked very clever suddenly, with that fiery intellect…like another side of him he hadn't shown yet. However, it was gone very soon, and he turned back to her. "I'm going to go scout down the fence. Give a shout if anything happens…I need to look for some sort of weak spot or something."

The mightyena gave a small nod, and turned her head slightly to watch the eon's progress on down the fence. He ran off in the eastern direction as opposed to westward, where the buildings thinned out. The fence, as far as Kojau could see, went along the grounds until it came to a sort of rocky hill. When it reached the hill, the fence sloped upward with it, rising up to eventually meet the ruins and the pace she and Kiete had broken into, earlier. It seemed so long ago now.

The young umbreon raced along the fence until he came to the hill. He seemed to linger at that spot for a time, and then climbed arduously up the hill a ways, along the fence, as if hoping to find a way for Kojau to get out there. The mightyena knew he wouldn't, and he eventually gave up and went sprinting down the hill again, pausing to look out the fence and beyond. Then, he turned and began to run back toward Kojau.

"Didn't find anything?" Kojau called out to him as he reached her once more, looking downcast, golden eyes dulled a bit.

"Nope," he replied, panting slightly. "Nothing. I didn't find anything. I don't think we'll…you'll…be as lucky getting out as you were getting in." He gave a long sigh. "There does appear to be one way out…along the fence on the other side, when it goes up the hill. But…you don't look in any shape to travel like that, and I wouldn't…"

"It's Ok." Kojau cut him off, dragging herself in from the water with her good paw, until she was standing in the surf. She somewhat regretted doing so as her shoulders throbbed with the exposure to the sun. Holding her left paw off the ground, the mightyena stood shakily there, panting a bit with the pain.

Kiete looked at her. "Are you OK?" He asked for the second time that day. The question was relatively meaningless, but Kojau recognized that he wanted to be reassured.

"I'm fine," she replied automatically, thinking this was probably a lie, but not caring. If it would make him feel better, she would say it. Besides, when did fine stop and not-fine begin? When one was dieing? Well, she wasn't dieing. At least, she didn't think so. This pain, though…it was so new and so familiar at the same time. It more than cancelled out the dull throb in her head, which she really had to think about to make present. This, though…this she couldn't take her mind off.

"OK." Kiete tried to smile, but the attempt fell short. "If…you'll follow me on down the fence, I think we can find a way to reunite up at the ruins…"

Kojau nodded her head, looking at her legs, one now useless. Would she ever regain the use of it? She didn't know. But she had to be brave now…she had to endure the pain, this feeling ravaging her body like electricity…she could do it, right? Just a little walk…to the top of the hill…

Kiete walked ahead of her, keeping his pace deliberately slow. It was a pleasant day outside, not too hot and not too cold, one of those pre-fall days, those perfect days when it's a crime to be inside. The sand was soft under the mightyena's sore paws, and yet it was easy to walk. Had this been in any other situation, she may have enjoyed it.

She was definitely not enjoying it now, though. The walk up the beach was rapidly turning into a nightmare she couldn't escape from, a waking hell. It wasn't just her leg, which seemed to grow worse and worse as she went on, and was wracked with a fresh bout of pain whenever she jarred it. Nor was it her shoulders, which still felt as though they were on fire. No, it was a combination of the two and a steadily growing nausea and cold feeling that seemed to permeate her entire being. For the first time in her life, Kojau felt absolutely _horrid._

She tried to think of something else, of anything but the situation she now found herself having to endure. She even attempted to make contact with that safe, soothing place in her mind, the white desert, even though it was one of the things that had gotten her into this situation in the first place. However, her discomfort was so acute that she couldn't focus on anything for very long, nor could she lull herself into a meditative state. Every second, every awful moment, was painfully _present, _more real than anything she had known in her life so far.

Gradually, her walk deteriorated into a sort of stumble, her path unsteady and faltering. Eyes half closed, she was like a zombie, a creature arisen from the grave to walk the earth again. She was aware of the increasingly concerned looks Kiete kept tossing over his shoulder at her, but it was hard to concentrate on anything anymore, her thoughts shattered and tossed to the wind like the spores of a dandelion.

She did think of coming here, of the events that were now behind her. Had it all been worth it? She could see nothing that had come of it, nothing really. True, she had seen another of her 'kind' here, but had lost him just like that. She had gained no insight, nothing profound or deep. She wasn't any closer to knowing who she really was than before. And the worst thing was that it was all her fault, and she had put Kiete through part of it along with her.

But gradually even these thoughts faded away, replaced by that sick, ravaging feeling in her body as she grew weaker and weaker. The nausea was rising as well, and her eyes watered as her stomach suddenly gave a great lurch and burned painfully.

Kiete turned back sharply as the mightyena staggered out a few feet into the ocean, sides heaving, though she had next to nothing to throw up. But her body continued to try to force _something _up, until she felt as though her entire being was trying to make its way out of her through her stomach, away from this tortured body that was tormenting it so. She wasn't even aware of falling until the pain hit her like a hammer blow as her legs gave out under her, and a panicked cry came from Kiete.

She stumbled to her paws again. There was nothing else to do, but the world was so indefinite suddenly that she found herself not knowing what direction was up or down anymore, and everything whirled about her in a kind of haze.

And then they were on the move again, Kiete walking beside her this time as she inched along at an excruciatingly slow speed, feeling as though she would fall any moment, the world spinning alarmingly around her whenever she tried to look about herself. Keeping her eyes closed, she relied on her senses to guide her.

They were at the hill, where the fence began to sweep upward along with the incline of the earth. Kojau wasn't even aware of it until Kiete called out for her to stop, and she paused, swaying in place, sides heaving with her rasping, harsh breath. Cracking her eyes open, she could just make out the blurry stretch of the sea as it went on and on and on, this time fenceless, the land around it looking untouched and wild, as no humans came here anymore. She wondered if she would have gone on forever had not Kiete called her back. Perhaps the high tide would have eventually carried her out to sea and drowned her.

"Kojau…we need to keep going…c'mon, please listen to me…" Kiete's voice reached her ears, pleading, though it seemed faint to her. But then, everything seemed faint now, except for the pain.

Turning jerkily to face the umbreon, she realized he had probably been calling her for a time now. She must not have been listening very carefully, or she would have heard him.

"Just…we just need to go up the hill…" Kiete, already a ways up the hill, peered back down at her from inside the fence. "C'mon, Kojau, you can make it, you really can…"

Kojau heaved a great sigh, wincing a bit as her insides churned once more, though nothing else happened. Gazing out to sea, she decided that she would have to make it through this, if only to see what lay on the other side of that great body of water.

And so it was that she began ascending the hill.

If it had been painful before, it was agony now. The hill was fairly steep, and Kojau's breathing rattled brokenly inside her as she ascended it. The pain came in great fiery flashes whenever she made a move, darkness gathering around the edges of her vision. Her eyes watered with the sheer intensity of it all, and the moisture made wet lines down her cheeks like tears. Head hanging, tongue lolling from her mouth, she concentrated on her three good legs, for she was in danger of falling off balance with her left raised uselessly above the earth.

Kiete shouted encouragement down to her, always just a bit above her, as though trying to make her believe that it was possible to reach the top of the hill. She didn't know if she believed it herself. All she knew to believe in now was the pain, the pain that seemed to be her whole existence.

At one point, she slipped sideways on some loose stones and fell roughly against the fence. She did cry out then, having been relatively silent before. The sound was pitiful, like a distressed poochyena's cry, and she wondered how she could make such a noise now. This one noise seemed to release the rest, and she remained leaning against the fence, whimpering in her pain, thinking of how unfair it was, of how she would never be able to reach the top of the hill.

And then Kiete was beside her, hiding his own distress lest it discourage her further. He couldn't reach her very well through the fence, but, as he leaned gently against it where she was, she could feel his body and energy and optimism. And that was just enough to get her going again.

She felt a sort of dull amazement as she reached the top of the hill, and a sense of accomplishment. Even if she died here, she would always know she had overcome that final obstacle, gotten over the last hurdle, even if she was never able to cross the sea and know her true purpose.

The ruins loomed before her, and she looked down at the earth. Bleached looking, she thought. Subdued, drained of its color…except for a flash of white, nearly buried in a large patch of tall, withered looking greenery…though the green had a gray tone.

Kiete was saying something to her about 'finding a way,' though she wasn't really listening to him at that point. Ay any rate, he vanished into the building they had come through originally, claws making a small clattering noise as he ran across the ruined fence there, presumably to find a way to reach the mightyena.

The pain had dulled, and Kojau felt only a curious floating sensation as she stumbled toward the white she had seen. Her body seemed oddly distant now, its feelings not quite reaching her properly. There was a numbing sensation there as well, and she supposed to ought to worry her. It didn't, though, not really.

She tripped as she reached the grass and the white she had seen, and went falling forward, only a dull throb reaching her as her bad leg twisted under her. She made an attempt to rise…only to find all that happened was her mind shouted signals to her body that were ignored. She was aware of a blackness overtaking her vision, and she realized she was going to lose consciousness soon.

She _had_ to see what that white was, though… With an extraordinary burst of willpower, the mightyena began to crawl forward, inching along like a snake until her nose was nearly touching the white. It was a sign, she saw. The faded letters seemed to swim before her, and she was aware of herself losing her grasp on the reality around her as darkness clouded her vision. However, before she went away, she was able to discern one word…or part of one; she couldn't be certain.

Airo.

* * *

(Sorry for not updating this in a while...I'm not dead, really! I'll try to update more after this. Again, sorry.) 


	11. How Long?

* * *

(And now for a chapter on Kojau's puppyhood! Make of it what you will, a dream or a vision...it doesn't matter.)

* * *

Chapter Eleven-How Long?

_The sun shone down on the slightly forested hills. Fall was here, and the leaves seemed to spark and catch fire in the sunlight streaming down on the land. Shades of yellow and gold and red flashed gaudily from the many trees scattered about, merging with the green, green fields and the great, endless blue sky above._

_Kojau panted as she ran, paws pounding lightly on the turf beneath them, eyes sparkling with joy and life. The poochyena could feel something special about the day, something that tingled pleasantly in her bones. She was the only one out so early, as her brothers and sisters were too young to be out on their own without a guardian; Kojau was the oldest, and had proven that she could be allowed to run about the hills unsupervised._

_She slowed a bit and came to a stop underneath a great, low set tree. Brilliant yellow leaves flashed in the branches and made pleasant wet sounds under her paws as she stepped in them. The earth here smelled dank and wild, and new bursts of scent came up to the poochyena every time she put a paw down or picked it up again. She loved the smell._

_A minute later, unable to contain herself, she was rolling in the wet leaves, a look of intense pleasure on her face. Standing up once more, she was pleased to find she now had her own perfume befitting the season. She smelled of dew kissed leaves and morning grass and the rich soil that was only found underneath great trees._

_Giving herself a small shake, Kojau trotted out from under the tree. The slight hill she was on provided an excellent view of her family's territory, and she savored the sight. The rolling hills stretched for miles and miles, and the many trees growing on them each flaunted their own unique fall colors. A crisp breeze blew from below, and the pokemon leaned into it, sharp eyes coming to rest upon a distant tree she knew well. There was a hole under this tree, and a tunnel that led to the den where her family slept. She fancied her parents were getting their five pups ready to go outside._

_Kojau gave a somewhat superior smirk. She didn't have to attend the morning grooming; she was old enough to groom herself, which she had demonstrated early in life. Though mightyena were normally not the cleanest of creatures, their pups often had a penchant for becoming filthy; this couldn't be tolerated, as it often led to sickness, which could be lethal to young poochyena. Thus, the pups were groomed carefully each morning. When they were old enough, they were made to groom themselves._

_Kojau did enjoy a good roll in the soil now and then, but she never let her fur become unduly dirty. That was something she had always prided herself in, especially when she compared herself to her younger siblings, her younger brother Kaid in particular, who had a fondness for rolling in mud when he could get away with it. _

_A small smile lit up the young pokemon's face as she saw a slight movement beneath the home tree. After a few seconds, a sleek, muscled shape emerged, and she recognized her father, lithe and subtle looking in the late morning's light. Next came her mother, slim and wily, sharp eyes taking in her surroundings, missing nothing. The mates stood there for a few moments, scanning for any sign of danger. Finally, the female turned her head and uttered a soft bark. _

_Kojau laughed a bit as her siblings seemed to explode from the den, scattering in all directions at once like the cotton spores of a dandelion thrown to the wind. The little gray poochyena were full to the bursting point with energy and vigor, and they bounced about everywhere. Kojau though they looked a bit like hyperactive rabbits, though she herself was often given to these moods; why else go on long runs about the hills each morning? _

_Feeling her father's gaze one her, she gave a short little 'all's well' howl and trotted just a bit closer to her distant family. Not too close, though…she wasn't exactly in the mood for being stampeded by hyper poochyena pups. Kaid in particular had a liking for bowling his siblings over. He was the oldest after her, but that didn't mean he was as reserved; on the contrary, he loved to make good use of his superior strength, as he was probably the biggest and hardiest pup of the bunch. _

_Kojau lay down as she let her gaze rove over her family. Her brothers and sisters would find her soon, no doubt, for, even on her distant hill, she was still susceptible to their attacks. The poochyena were generally allowed a large range, as long as they kept the den in sight and their parents were able to keep them in sight. Though Kojau was the eldest, she wasn't allowed any more range than her siblings…at least, not until she evolved._

_Evolution was a scary idea, she though. Scary and exciting at the same time. She had heard it didn't hurt…well, not unless you were going through some great trauma when it happened. But usually, especially when it was almost done, it was the best feeling in the world. At least, that's what Kojau's parents had told her and her brothers and sisters. Whether they just wanted to reassure them or not, the poochyena did not know…what she did know what that she was quite close to evolving herself, and she had to keep a tight hold on her mind to keep it from constantly straying to nervous thoughts of evolution._

_Her brothers and sisters were ranging ever further now. Kaid was playing with Arriad, who more than made up for what she lacked in strength with energetic zeal. Svet, Laria, and Murro were ranging about a ways from their parents, sniffing about in the fall leaves and the lush grass. _

_Kojau considered joining them for a moment, and nearly got to her feet. However, she decided immediately not to as a wrathful squeal from Arriad split the air. Kaid had apparently gone a little too far in the rough play, and Kojau watched in amusement as he wisely turned tail and ran. He may have been the strongest pup, but no one wanted to mess with Arriad when she was angry; she turned into a miniature ball of fury that seemed to consist only of pricking claws and a mean bite. However, she had a rather short memory, and soon, with Kaid far away, forgot why she had been angry in the first place and calmed down again. _

_Kojau slowly shut her eyes, drowsing in the slight sunlight that beamed down on her gray fur. Though watchers would think she was rather stupid not to be on alert for predators so far from her family, she was not worried. Her parents had a reputation as mightyena you didn't want to mess with, as they had once tracked down a young arcanine who had killed a pup from an earlier litter and taken a rather messy revenge on it; Kojau did not have all the details, nor did she want them. The point was that her parents rarely allowed any other predators into their territory, especially not when they had pups to look after. Thus, there wasn't any danger from land predators; air predators were a bit of a different matter, though. Fearow and pidgeot were a big danger, but Kojau's parents were adept at spotting them from a distance and grouping the pups back together until they passed on._

_Kojau suddenly raised her head from her paws, struck by a feeling of disharmony. She blinked, shaking her head, bemused. The feeling was very subtle, and she couldn't tell if she was the one projecting it or not, nor could she sense any other presences besides her family and herself. The faint feeling of discord remained, however, and the poochyena glanced down to see if her family had noticed anything out of the ordinary._

_Everything seemed normal enough down there. Her parents looked at ease and were chatting between themselves, keeping an eye on their sons and daughters. Kojau squinted at her siblings, feeling something was amiss. Only four…that was it! There were only four poochyena down there now…where was Kaid? _

_Kojau only had a faint warning as she leaped to her paws, attempting to get out of the way in time. However, her efforts were in vain, and she let out a sharp yelp as she felt her large brother slam right into her. Knocked off her paws, she found herself rolling uncontrollably down the hill. Her forepaws shot out as she dug her claws into the grassy earth, finally succeeding in bringing herself to a stop, body smarting slightly. She was going to have a few bruises, no doubt about it…_

_Kaid's barking laughter reached her faintly from the top of the hill as she picked herself up, snorting in faint disgust as she felt bits of leaf litter and dead grass clinging to her dense gray coat. She should have been ready for that, she thought. She was used to Kaid's antics by now. _

"_You fell!" Kaid pranced about her as she clambered once more to the top of the hill, shaking herself off. "You fell down hill! I tackled you! I _tackle_ you!" And he backed up a ways, going into a clumsy hunting crouch, bottom wiggling back and forth as he prepared to pounce._

_Kojau whirled and ran at him. He had not been expecting her to attack him while he prepared to pounce, and he reared up out of his crouching position. Kojau, who had been aiming to leap over him, instead knocked heads with him and reeled backwards, dazed._

_Kaid staggered toward her, eyes slightly out of focus. "Get you for that…going to tackle you again…for that…" His voice was still eager as ever, but he was a little too slow in his lunges, and Kojau was by far the quicker of the two. Snapping out of her daze sooner than her brother, she danced about him, laughing and having quite a good time indeed. _

_Kaid finally sat back on his haunches, looking frustrated. "Not _fair_!" He cried plaintively, shifting on his haunches in an irritated fashion. "You too _fast_! Why you never fight? Why you always run?" He cocked an ear, sniffing a bit._

_Kojau stepped forward and poked him with a paw, grinning and leaping back before he could retaliate. "Because you're too slooooooow," she teased, fluffing her gray tail as she sauntered cockily in front of him, yellow eyes glinting brightly. Pausing for a moment, she said the words she knew would rile him the most. "And because I am **older **than you are." She said the word 'older' in a deep, grating voice that she hoped would serve to infuriate her brother even more._

_It worked. Kaid, hating to be reminded of his age, gave a furious growl and lunged for her. She dodged him, but then he did something that she would have originally thought him incapable of. He actually used a strategy of a sort and feinted in his lunge, rushing in the direction he knew she would dodge in and ploughing into her. _

"_OW!" Kojau yelped, staggering backward and trying to get away from the victorious Kaid. He battered her mercilessly about the head with his large paws, making her dizzy all over again and unable to regain her earlier speed and dexterity. She could only keep backing away from him, ears flat back against her head, snarling and growling and trying to keep from closing with him directly; he would pin her if she let him get closer than he was already, and that could be rather painful, as she knew from experience. So she simply continued to back up, head ringing, snapping at his paws as he hit her again and again, his eyes sparkling. She probably deserved it for egging him on, she thought…but this had to stop soon; she didn't think she could stand this sort of treatment much longer._

_Kojau realized dimly that she had come to the edge of a rather sheer hill; she must have been backing up for quite a while now to get here…this was the boundary, beyond which the pups weren't allowed to venture. Any further and they would loose sight of the den and their parents. Kojau, not wishing to be reprimanded by her parents for straying too far, made a sort of 'all or nothing' move, latching onto one of Kaid's large paws with her forelegs as he made to hit her again, then lunging forward, large jaws gleaming in the light. She hoped to intimidate him, perhaps to knock him off balance. She could probably get away if she could pull that off._

_However, her plan backfired. She pulled backward on Kaid's leg as she lunged toward him, and, unprepared for this, he fell forward. With a startled yelp, Kojau found herself squashed momentarily under his weight. Then, they were both falling, crying out in panic and fear as, unable to stop themselves, they flew down the hill with great momentum._

_Kojau went crashing to the bottom first, rolling a few times before stopping. Her sides heaved harshly as she lay there, faintly hearing Kaid slam to the ground some ways behind her. She was quite certain she had broken every bone in her body, as she could not seem to draw in her breath properly. In reality, she had only battered herself up a bit and knocked the breath out of herself; being young, her mind tended to over exaggerate things. _

_Eventually, she surprised herself by climbing to her paws, one ear cocked over her eyes, fur messed up quite badly. Kaid was sitting a ways from her, looking spaced and dazed. The two simply stared at one another for a few moments, as though confirming that they were both indeed all right. _

"_Dad gonna be mad, yes…?" Kaid spoke raspily, glancing around himself. The rolling hills stretched off into the distance, and the large hill they had just rolled down loomed over the two small pokemon, seeming to engulf them in its ominous shadow. The den was nowhere to be seen. Indeed, it seemed that the two pups had fallen into a different world, one in which they had to take care of themselves. _

_It was a scary feeling, and Kojau's voice quavered a bit in trepidation as she spoke, though, as the eldest, she felt it was her duty to at least try to sound brave in front of her younger brother. "Yes. They will be angry at us. Probably come over the hill any minute now."_

_The two lapsed into a gloomy silence after this small exchange. It was generally understood between them that they were waiting for their parents to come get them, as neither really wanted to climb the hill again…or walk around, for that matter. The fall down the hill had shaken them up more than a bit._

_Kojau felt the first faint stirrings of fear as nothing happened, and she began to listen very carefully, eyes wide. They were too far away to hear anything from their family even if something was going on over there, and the female poochyena shot a glance toward the top of the hill, looking worried. Kaid followed her gaze, and, sensing her distress, began to whimper quietly to himself. _

"_Be quiet," Kojau whispered harshly, putting as much urgency into those words as she could manage. "We don't want anything to hear us…" With that, she began to move very slowly and quietly toward the top of the hill, belly brushing the green grass._

"_Don't leave me," Kaid whispered behind her. His eyes were impossibly wide, though he had stopped whimpering, which was very good. "Don't want to be alone out here…"_

_Turning her head slightly, Kojau glanced back at her younger brother and took pity on him. "Come along, then," she said softly. "Just be very, very quiet…"_

_Kaid nodded, shuddering slightly before following his sister, shadowing her movements. He wanted to cry out in distress, to be comforted…but, as he saw how brave his big sister was being, he felt himself gain a small measure of courage. Shadowing her movements, he followed her up the hill. _

_Kojau continued up the hill, feeling somewhat comforted by her brother's presence. Her golden eyes glinted as she neared the top of the hill, pausing just before she came to it to take in her surroundings. She couldn't smell anything threatening on the wind…but then, it wasn't blowing toward her at the moment. Anything could be happening over the hill, and she wouldn't know it. She was so fearful that she could sense danger practically everywhere, which made it hard to discern anything out of the muddle._

_Finally, Kojau made her way to the top of the hill, eyes peering over and scanning the hills before them, glancing fearfully toward the den area. At first, she couldn't see anything at all…not even her parents, or her siblings. However, there was movement down by the den. Kojau was so focused on trying to discern what it was that she failed to pay attention to her more immediate surroundings. All the warning she had was a tiny noise of distress from Kaid as he began to say something about a smell on the wind. Turning back, she glanced down at him to ask what he was sensing._

_A sudden movement behind her…a foul smell. A look of pure horror crossed Kaid's face._

DANGER!

_Everything happened so quickly from that point. Kojau felt a presence rush toward her. She turned and made a wild leap into space as something brushed by her back, and found herself tumbling helter-skelter down the hill for the second time that day. Only, now she was glad of her momentum, as she knew she was tumbling away from whatever it was that had tried to attack her. _

_Kaid was already rushing down the hill as Kojau launched herself down it, tail between his legs, crying out for his parents in terror. There was a purple monster up there with a very large horn and odd eyes and huge spikes. Plus, it was much bigger than him, and he didn't think he would stand any chance whatsoever against it. He raced after the tumbling form of his sister, but he just wasn't quick enough._

_Kojau somehow managed to pull herself out of her tumble down the hill in time to get to her feet and made a wild leap to the bottom, paws smarting as they hit the ground. Whirling, her eyes widened in horror at the sight she beheld. Kaid was racing frantically down the hill toward her, a large purple monster behind him. The nidorino was gaining, and Kaid knew it, and the look in his eyes rent Kojau to the very heard of her being. And she could do nothing, as she felt she was rooted in place by her terror._

_The nidorino, catching up with the fleeing poochyena, slammed his side with the side of its horn, sending him tumbling to the ground at the bottom of the hill, not too far from Kojau. Its eyes were cold as it moved toward Kaid, who struggled desperately to get to his feet. _

_And it wasn't just coldness, Kojau realized in horror. Its eyes were dead, purposeless. It couldn't feel anything about what it was doing, and its emotionless state chilled the poochyena to the bone. _

_Bu, despite her fear, she couldn't just do nothing. Heart pounding painfully in her chest, she gave a bubbling growl and rushed toward her brother, intending to help him. She reached him just as the nidorino did, and it paused in front of them both, staring down at the small darkness pokemon with its dead eyes._

_Kojau menaced it, snarling and growling in equal fear and ferocity. She stood over Kaid, who still lay prone on the earth, whimpering painfully and coughing a bit. _

_The calm moment didn't last. The nidorino slowly swung back its head in an almost disinterested motion, then brought its long horn bearing down toward Kojau, who simply stood their dumbly…that it, until that sharp point came into contact with her head, just above her left eye. She gave a cry despair as she felt her skull seemed to explode with the pain, and tore herself backwards, waves of dizziness and agony washing over her alternately._

_Staggering back, she barely managed to keep her feet, whimpering in pain. However, the pain was replaced almost instantly with an odd numbness, though the slight, almost intoxicating dizziness remained. Blood seeped into her left eye and spattered onto the ground at her paws as she watched the nidorino grasp Kaid in its jaws, lifting him completely off the ground. He shouted in panic and fear and cried out to Kojau for help, but she only watched, suddenly finding that she was not interested in anything anymore…she was simply a shell of a pokemon, a shell that could feel nothing. Kaid didn't matter anymore. _

_The male poochyena shouted for help and made loud noises of distress as the nidorino bore him away up the hill, its pace slow and deliberate. It paused for a moment as he continued to cry out and shook him, smashing his head against the ground. Something gave a sharp, wet sounding crack, and then he was still, small gray body going limp in the nidorino's grasp._

_Kojau wasn't affected by this, though, not even by the last baleful, accusing look Kaid had shot at her as she had simply stood there and watched him be carried off. _I trusted you_, his look had seemed to say. _I trusted you, and you let me down

_The nidorino reached the top of the hill and disappeared from sight. Kojau remained where she was a while longer, then she fell. _Another time,_ her dying mind seemed to say. _An ending...and a beginning…_Kojau, barely alive, managed to lift her head slightly, blood leaking slowly down from her ruptured skull. There was something there…it seemed as though a presence was shimmering all around her, in the air. Blinking, she realized the air had indeed taken on a golden color, a sort of hazy film. And she wasn't dying any longer. But why…? _

A long, long time…_ The wind seemed to sigh out those words, and then the golden air ignited. Kojau could faintly hear herself crying out, though her voice seemed distant, as if it belonged to another body. Indeed, it might have, as she could no longer feel her own body. She was shifting, warping, taking on a new form. Eventually, the golden light became so intense that she shut her eyes to it, and chose to fall into darkness instead. _How long…?_ Her last though echoed dismally inside her darkening mind.

* * *

_

_Later in the day, two bloodied and battered mightyena made their way out of their den, where they had been forced to stand at bay to protect their four pups. The pokemon keeping them prisoners had finally left, and now they were free to look frantically for their two lost pups._

_They followed the scent trail to a large hill. The smell of blood wafted to their noses, and they frantically raced to the top of the hill, peering downward. Their eyes widened as they saw the sure signs of some sort of scuffle. In the middle of the battleground lay a frail looking mightyena, a mightyena who carried their daughter's scent. Dried blood pooled on the ground around her head, but she was breathing and had no physical wounds. And, as the poor parents tried to figure out what had happened, there was a sense of something ending and something…beginning…

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((Thanks for sticking with me, everyone! I'll try to update more.)) 


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